The Pretender
by GRINtelligencer
Summary: Veteran Auror Break returns from a traumatic mission only to get caught up in the tangle of mysterious surrounding Auror Liam Lunettes. As friendship grows between them Break starts to suspect there's something larger going on than he suspected.
1. Chapter 1

**The Pretender**

This is the prequel to 'And Hope to Die', set about four or five years before it. For anyone who likes to know -I always do- timeline-wise this takes place during the last years of You-Know-Who's first rise to power, whereas 'And Hope to Die' was set in the lull time before his return. I had to mess a bit with the ages, Break only six years older instead of the much larger gap in the manga and Sharon is also a little older too, just to make things work out more neatly.

So without further ado or nervous exposition:

Chapter 1

* * *

Xerxes Break had snuck away from the Auror office and was currently hiding in the stairwell. He had gotten thoroughly tired of the stares of the other Aurors, it was not as if he was the first Auror to have lost an eye, he was just the most recent. But it seemed as if his co-workers were fascinated with the piece of gauze taped over his empty socket, they seemed to stare at it at every opportunity.

A person couldn't really blame them, loosing bits of your body was a fact of the job for an Auror, they all lost something eventually. The ones that stared were no doubt wondering how long it would be before they too sported bandages over missing parts of their own body once they ran afoul of the wrong Death Eater.

He fished in the pocket of his robe, locating the packet of cigarettes that had been another reason he had come to the stairwell. These days almost all of the office smoked, though the Ministry was taking steps to try to stamp out the habit; already lighting up on Ministry premises had been banned.

But Aurors had a well known habit of ignoring the more annoying Ministry decrees which no one ever bothered to call them to task on. Not long after the ban had made itself know every Auror that had picked up the habit began quietly sneaking onto the stairwell to furtively smoke, the small spots of ash on the wall gave evidence to the fact that many Aurors had put out their cigarettes there. The upper ranks of the Ministry would be very annoyed if they knew.

Who would tell them? Who wanted to get on the bad side of almost the entire Auror division? No one, that's who, so the higher echelons of the Ministry were blissfully unaware of the decree dodging.

Break removed a cigarette and hid the box back in his pocket, feeling vaguely guilty about this and not because it was against official office rules. If his partner had been here she would have been angry at him for smoking, she had been trying to get him to quit for the entire time they had worked together but… Tamara wasn't here to protest now.

She wasn't anywhere now.

Grumpily he lit the cigarette with a flick of his fingers, again glad he had learned that trick from… who had it been, Shacklebolt? Maybe, he couldn't remember at the moment.

In the meantime he enjoyed the simple pleasure of sneaking a cigarette, which, for reasons he couldn't really explain, seemed to make the ache in his missing eye lessen, something about the nicotine, perhaps? Who knew.

The glowing cherry of the cigarette was practically the only illumination in this back stairway; there were lighted lanterns at the next landing down before the switchback and one next to him but they were dim, running low on oil, and did not do much to make the stairwell visible.

Which was why, when he heard the faint groan, Break was not immediately sure of where it had come from. With a faint frown he cocked his head to the side, listening intently. Now that he was listening very, very close he could swear he could hear breathing, ragged, pained breathing, somewhere nearby.

Withdrawing his wand from his pocket he murmured, "Lumos."

In the sudden light cast from his wand the stairwell became fully illuminated and the source of the breathing was clear. There was a crumpled body on the landing.

Anyone else but an Auror would have immediately rushed to the body, registering only another human being in pain. But Break only let himself advance as far as the top of the steps, raising his wand so the light he cast hit the body more evenly. Training made him take in the entire scene before he did anything.

The body was a man, a young man, more specifically, whose robes were tangled around him. One of his arms was twisted under him in a way that meant it was either massively out of joint or broken, the other was thrown out to the side, and it lay in the middle of a pool of blood. A dark line, across the palm of that hand hinted at the blood's source. There was more darkly glinting blood under the man's head, though the wound had come from was not visible. One of the man's legs was twisted backwards, clearly broken.

From the middle of the steps a pair of glasses glittered back at him, probably fallen from the man's face.

There was no sign of a trap or any deception, this looked like someone had just fallen down a rather long flight of stairs and not landed well. He took all this in, giving himself time to fully register it. The scene of an accident, not a trap for an unwary Auror.

_Then_ Break rushed to the body, dropping his cigarette on the landing and forgetting about it the moment it left his fingers. He reached out and searched for the pulse in the neck, not wanting to risk moving an arm. It was there, not as strong as he would like but there.

Now that he was closer he thought he recognized this man from the office, it was… Lunettes? Something like that. He couldn't recall the man's first man, which was slightly embarrassing since he was pretty sure he had dumped paperwork on his desk for checking over several times. He was just another face in the office before; Break had never been especially good at amiable office relations.

He would have checked the man's breathing, basic Auror medical training said that was the next step but there was no need when he could hear the man's rasping breath easily. It was true he knew some healing, but this wasn't something he thought he could deal with when there were other options available.

Briefly he let his hand rest on the man's shoulder, "I'm coming back with help." he told him, on the off-chance that he was able to hear him. "Hold on."

Then he drew himself to his feet and dashed down the stairs to the next level. There was a division of the healers assigned just to the Aurors, since they got themselves injured on a regular basis in the course of their duty, along with a rudimentary infirmary which Break was heading for.

He burst through the doors with his trademark grin nowhere is sight, smacking his elbow hard on his blind side as he misjudged the placing of the door in his haste.

The only healer in the narrow infirmary jumped and whirled to face him. She was one he didn't know, pretty, short, but far too young to be a full healer. An apprentice then.

"Get your kit, now." he snapped at her. "Everything you need for a fall victim."

She blinked at him, "W-what?"

"Kit." he repeated impatiently. "Fall victim. Get moving."

The apprentice appeared to come to herself with a jolt. "Of course," she hurried to one of the cabinets at the walls and pulled a bag out. "Where?" she asked.

* * *

Less than three minutes later the apprentice healer, who had told him her name was Sharon as they had hurried up the stairs, was kneeling by the wounded man with her wand out. She was murmuring spells that Break couldn't catch, her other hand on the man's shoulder, the air between them sparking with magic.

He was just tucking in the ends of the bandage she had set him to putting around the man's sliced hand when she turned to him. "He's safe to move, can you help me carry him?"

Just as he was about to ask whether she was sure about that a voice from the top of the stairs said, "What the hell is going on down there?" and John Dawlish came trotting down the stairs. Somehow in the process of explaining the situation Dawlish ended up being the one to pick up the man and carry him down to the Auror's infirmary. It probably had something to do with the fact that Break had a gaping hole where his eye used to be, that made people jump to help him do things since he had returned to the office. Even things he really didn't need help with, which was just beginning to get annoying.

All the same, if Dawlish wanted to carry pure death-weight downstairs for him he wasn't going to complain. Or even follow, for that matter.

With a healer alerted and the man being taken to infirmary there was nothing else Break could contribute to the situation. He climbed the stairs, pausing only to scoop the man's glasses up. At least now he knew the man's name, the healer had gasped it when she had first seen him -he was on first name basis with a healer. That was odd. Perhaps his fellow Auror was accident prone.

His name was Liam. Liam Lunettes. It was definitely a name he had heard before, but Break was fairly sure he'd never had much contact with the man, beyond tossing some paperwork on his desk. He'd remember if he'd ever done fieldwork with him, those sort of things stuck in the head.

All this was mostly background thought to the prevailing thought in Break's head, which was, namely: Where the hell was this man's partner? Partners were supposed to look after one another (there was a bit of a lurch in his heart as his mind threw up an image of Tamara), they were suppose to notice when their partner didn't come back to his desk for a long time and go see what had happened to them. Where had Liam Lunettes' partner been while he lay bleeding at the bottom of a flight of stairs?

It was a little of an assumption that he had a partner at all but the higher ups liked to keep Aurors in partner groups for their first ten years on the job, unless they proved that they worked better on their own. Things worked better that way. A partner looked after you, had your back (or was supposed to) and that was nothing to be dismissed lightly. His partner had been- Break shook his head to banish that line of thought.

He headed back to the office, though no one would have noticed if he'd just gone home since it was almost the end of his shift. But there was something he wanted to do first. "Hey," he said to the first Auror he ran into in the office, "Who's Liam Lunettes' partner?"

The Auror he had accosted blinked at him, then said, "Vincent Nightray." with a grimace. "Why?"

"Lunettes went a-tumbling down the back stairs," Break replied lightly.

"Is he alright?"

Break shrugged. "Not sure. Have you seen Nightray lately?"

Wordlessly the Auror pointed across the room, to where the coffeepot was enthroned on its own table. Two men were currently standing by it, mugs in hand. Both had long blonde hair but Break knew which was which even from this distance. With a nod of thanks to the Auror he'd been talking to Break made his way between the cubicles, not taking his eye off his target.

By the time he'd gotten to the coffeepot Nightray was watching him out of the corner of his eye, having noticed that he was being rather intently focused on. Nightray didn't have his blonde hair pulled back in a tail like the man he was talking to, loose it reached almost past his shoulder-blades. Strangely - well, strange even for an Auror- Nightray was known to carry a pair of scissors in a holster in his side, rather like a muggle would carry a gun. He also gave anyone who spoke to him a mild case of the creeps, which was probably from the sensation of being stared at by one gold eye and one red eye.

"Nightray." Break greeted the man, who offered a smile that was slightly too sly for Break's liking in response. "Your partner had an accident on the back stairs. He's hurt."

For a moment Vincent Nightray was very notably _not_ surprised, and then his face smoothed over into an expression of concern. "What happened to him?"

"He fell down the stairs." Break replied shortly. "Dawlish took him to the infirmary."

"How… unfortunate." Nightray said, his voice as careful as his wording. "I do suppose I should check on him." He put his mug, still half filled with coffee, back on the counter and said to the other Auror he had been talking to, "We'll have to find that old chessboard, Vessalius. Sometime later, of course."

"Of course," Oscar Vessalius said and when Nightray had departed he raised an eyebrow at Break. "You look like someone just smacked you in the head with a board."

"I'm not surprised. This is very much not a 'surprised' expression."

Oscar chuckled into his coffee, he was one of the few people Break had gotten to know well after he'd been assigned to help Tamara and him on a few past missions. "I wasn't saying you looked surprised. I was saying you look angry. Not everyone is as close to their partner as you were. Though in this case…" Oscar snorted and went back to his coffee.

"What is in this case?" Break asked cautiously, lowering his voice. "Whatever you just thought to yourself, tell me."

"A bit of office gossip, and an old one at that." Taking in Break's interested glance Oscar shrugged and went on, "Back before Lunettes partnered with him no one wanted to be Nightray's partner."

"Why?" Break asked.

Taking a sip of coffee Oscar swished it thoughtfully around his mouth before he swallowed it, apparently thinking intently as he did so. "I remember most of the people Nightray got partnered with would ask to be transferred pretty quickly after they were assigned to him, Lunettes is the only one who's stuck with him."

"Is he that bad of a partner?"

"It's not that, it's more that he insists of sleeping with whoever he's partnered with. Or trying to at least." Oscar gave a wicked grin, "When Shuntley told him that he'd chop off his important bits and shove them in the furnace if he tried it it was Nightray who asked for a transfer. So if they won't sleep with him _he_ asks for a new partner."

"Interesting," Break fished his own mug out of the tangle on the table and tapped the coffeepot with his wand. He poured himself a mug of, now steaming, coffee and tapped the little machine again with his wand when he put the empty pot back. The coffee pot rumbled into reluctant life to refill the pot. Whoever it was who had gotten a coffeepot to work around so much magic was probably a minor office hero for a while. "You're saying Nightray and Lunettes are…" he raised his eyebrows at Oscar who shrugged again.

"Well, they've been partnered for two years now."

"You'd think he'd show a little more concern for his lover." Break glowered in the direction Nightray had left in.

Romance in partnerships was stupid, he and Tamara had established that one between them early on, that kind of thing only made missions more complicated.

"I never said they were lovers," Oscar had his voice at half volume, the way all the best office gossip was passed on. "Just that Nightray was probably sleeping with him. Anyway," he returned his voice to a normal level, "Is Lunettes alright? How badly did he fall?"

"I didn't see the fall, I only saw the aftermath. It looks like he broke his arm, maybe his leg too, and he cut his hand open rather nastily."

"Cut?" Oscar echoed, "On what?"

Break opened his mouth to reply and then frowned, instead saying, "You know, I'm not sure." He remembered the cut across Lunettes' palm, it hadn't seemed odd at the time, but now something about it was niggling at his mind. Very carefully he didn't focus on it, lest the hunch fade before it was even fully formed. Instead he dropped his voice back down to gossip level and asked, "So why don't you think Lunettes and Nightray are 'lovers' exactly?"

"Talk to Lunettes for about ten minutes." Oscar replied promptly. "I do not believe those two make a happy couple, it just _can't_ work."

In Break's personal experience Oscar was a good judge of character; if he thought that, there was a good chance it was true. "So what are you saying that that relationship is…?"

"Placation, probably. Pity for Lunettes though, he's a decent enough fellow. You'd know this too if you ever paid attention to anything other than you next mission."

"I like it that way." Break said. "Tamara always deals with the paperwork anyway so I don't have to-" he trailed off as he realized he'd done it again; referring to his partner in the present tense was a hard habit to shake. He took a large gulp of coffee, scowling like he hated the stuff.

"I'm sorry about that, by the way," Oscar said, looking pointedly at the gauze taped over his eye. "You two were close. It must be hard."

There was a thin smile on his lips, he could tell. "Time moves on, Vessalius. I've got work to get to. Later." That was an outright lie, but Oscar didn't know that, and if he could tell that it wasn't necessarily the truth he didn't comment as Break took his coffee back to his cubicle.

Tamara smiled down at him from the dozen or so pictures he had pinned up, she even waved at him sometimes while his photo self skulked off to the side. They were all taken at Tamara's insistence, she loved wizard pictures, since she had been muggle-born she'd not grown up with them like most wizarding kids would. These were all copies she had insisted he put in his cubicle because she had claimed it looked far too bare otherwise.

There was the past tense, creeping in.

But this, here, in these pictures, _this_ was what a partner should be. Not…

Break propped his left elbow on his desk and stared at his palm. He'd gotten a good look at that wound Lunettes had, since he'd been the one to bandage it while that healer had checked for internal injury. The edges had been as straight as the cut itself, which didn't make sense for a fall. It hadn't been an abrasion, which you would _expect_ from a fall, the skin had been cut cleanly, not worn away.

How would a man get a cut like that falling down a flight of stairs?

For some reason a picture of Vincent Nightrays scissors, always by the man's side, presented itself to his mind. His hand clenched into a fist. Surely no partner would… and no _Auror_ would…

There had been no surprise on the man's face when he had told him about his partner. None at all.

Getting to his feet Break peered over the partition that separated his cubicle from Oscar's to see if he was there. He was but he was bent productively over his work, quill scratching away. Break reached into his pocket.

When the piece of candy bounced off his desk inches away from his inkwell Oscar leaned back in his chair to glower at Break. "What?" he asked.

"How long had you been talking to Nightray before I came up?"

"Only a minute or two. Why?"

"No reason." Break ducked back down into his cubicle. He stared at his palm for a few more moments, letting the theory grow. It almost seemed possible, when one took their morals and wound them down to sewer rat level.

Break waited until the shift was over and the night shift was coming in just to be sure he wouldn't run into Nightray and then headed down to the infirmary with something from his desk to confirm something for himself.

* * *

**Keep you in the dark**

**And so it all began**

**(The Pretender~ The Foo Fighters)**

**

* * *

**

**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

**The Pretender**

We'll find out about how Break lost both eye and partner in good time. All feedback is greatly appreciated.

Chapter 2

* * *

The apprentice healer he had met previously was sitting by the man's bed; a book was open on her lap in a manner that she suggested she planned to be there all night.

"You again, don't we employ anybody else?"

She squeaked and jumped, her book falling to the floor. Shooting him an annoyed look she scooped the book from the floor, "That's the second time you've appeared out of nowhere, what, do you come out the cabinet when I'm not looking or something?"

"Now how would I fit in the cabinet?" he asked. "And shouldn't there be someone else here? A full healer, I mean."

"Healer Radsby isn't feeling well," she told him frankly. "So I slipped a sleeping potion in his tea and he's passed out over there." a gesture to the far side of the infirmary made Break turn to glance at the prone healer, who was snoring softly into his thick beard.

"That's pretty devious." he remarked. "What was your name again?"

"Sharon Rainsworth. And I'm a pretty devious person. Besides, Healer Radsby doesn't get enough sleep and a little more when he's sick will only help him. You've come to check on your friend?"

"Not exactly. He's _your_ friend isn't he?" Break raised an eyebrow at her. "You knew his name."

"We were in school together." she explained. "And we were friends."

Break frowned, that didn't quite work, she was a little too young looking for it to work out neatly in his head, he hated when that happened; it meant he wasn't being told something. "You would have been in your first or so year just as he was in his last; it's a little odd that someone in their final year like would be friends with a first year. Did you two know each other… outside of Hogwarts?"

She regarded him with a decidedly cool expression. "I don't know what you're implying."

That hadn't exactly been what he'd meant, but his over-athletic tongue kept on. Had he not been still turning over that thought from earlier he might have thought a little more about going on more to say, "A bit unlikely but I'm not one to judge-"

The petite apprentice proceeded to cut him off at that point by slamming her book into the side of his head. While he was reeling from the completely unexpected blow Sharon snapped, "Liam was my tutor in Transfiguration. We got to be _friends_ though that, you ass."

Break ran the last minute or so of conversation back in his head and internally winced. He should have known better than to let his stupid mouth run without his head to keep an eye on it. From the expression on Sharon's face she looked ready to hit him with the books again. "I apologize." he said, so bluntly that she just blinked at him for a moment. "I meant that I thought you came from the same hometown. I didn't realize that I was… being a bit misleading."

"Oh." she replied, deflating a bit. "Well, you were. A lot. It was rude."

"It's a bad habit of mine," he admitted, fishing in one of his pockets for the other of his bad habits -according to Tamara at least. "Here," he offered her one of the wrapped candies he always had in his pockets. "Have a candy and forgive me?"

With a chuckle for the random gesture she took the candy from him, and then paused, candy still held in mid-air between them. "I've just realized, you know my name but I don't know yours."

"It's Xerxes Break."

"Ah, _you're_ Break." Sharon tapped her eye meaningfully, "Everyone talks about how…" she trailed off as if she realized she had said too much. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have mentioned it."

He plastered a smile on his face and made himself not thinking of the burning dungeon, the body, the pain in his eye… "Don't worry about it." Break told her, though his hand strayed up to cover his missing eye. As soon as he caught himself doing it he resolutely put his hand in his pocket and changed the subject. "How is Lunettes? What did he end up breaking?"

Sharon sighed and sat back in her chair. "Two broken bones in his arm, both tibia and fibula, cracks in his shin bone and rib, and a rather nasty crack in his collarbone. And then there's the concussion, the minor head wound, and that hand wound. It's really quite the little list for a simple fall."

"It that unusual?"

"Well, yes, it is. Usually people don't fall that badly, even if they trip and there's stairs. Liam really does have terrible luck." She made a face. "No one wants to have to drink that much Skella-grow in one sitting."

Since he had plenty of experience with the stuff Break too made a face. "It's a good thing he's unconscious then."

"He wasn't when we gave it to him." Sharon said grimly. "I put him out right after though, no one wants to feel that many bones healing themselves."

"What did he say while he was awake?" asked Break.

"Not much. He was a little out of it, since he hit his head it isn't too surprising and once I explained what happened to him he just said something having the worst luck. It wasn't all the coherent though."

"I wasn't expecting coherency, he hit his head on something so hard he was bleeding." Break said, drawing the thing he had taken from his office drawer.

"What are those for?" Sharon asked, frowning at the scissors he held.

He held out his palm and opened the scissors as far as they would go. "I want to test something." And before she could ask what and he could think too much about what he was about to do he carved a cut diagonally across his palm with the scissors.

"What on _earth_ are you doing?" Sharon grabbed his bleeding hand, wrenching it away from the one with the scissors.

"Do me a favor and heal this?" he asked her, nodding at the wound, which was bleeding rather enthusiastically.

"You're insane." She muttered, pulling out her wand and murmuring over the slice. The skin twitched, felt warm and knitted together, leaving only a thin white line across his palm to show it had ever been there. "What was that about?" demanded Sharon finally, releasing his hand.

"Just a moment," he went to Liam and unwound the bandage from his hand. He compared his recently healed hand to the one he remembered had been cut when he'd found him on the stairwell. The wound on Liam's hand was a thin white line, almost identical to the one on his own palm. "Huh." Break remarked to the world in general.

Sharon traced Break's healed cut and then Liam's. "Do you think that…"

Break closed his hand on the cut. "How well do you know Lunettes these days?"

"Well."

"Have you noticed him acting oddly lately?"

There was something, a flicker in her eyes before she replied, "No, I haven't. He seemed his normal self when I talked to him this morning."

'His normal self'? What kind of phrasing was that? "In any case, how about we keep this little bit of information," he held up his closed hand, "to ourselves."

Her look was suspicious and so was her tone, "Right. Of course."

"Wouldn't want to run around making wild accusations, now, would we?" He smiled his most pleasant smile.

She began rewrapping the bandage around Liam's hand. "No. That would be a bad idea. By the way," Sharon tucked in the last and of the bandage and turned to him, "If you really are Xerxes Break, aren't you still supposed to be on medical leave?"

She was alone in the infirmary. "I could grow to hate that." she said.

* * *

**The secrets that you keep are ever ready**

**Are you ready?**

**(The Pretender~ The Foo Fighters)**

**

* * *

**

**TBC**


	3. Chapter 3

**The Pretender**

Break needs a hobby in the worst way.

Chapter 3

* * *

There was cheery morning light steaming through the magically placed windows in the infirmary and Liam Lunettes was sitting on his bed, cradling an aching head in the palms of his hand. It would, he fervently hoped, fade soon so he wouldn't be late to his morning shift.

"You're awake."

He looked up to see a blur that was vaguely recognizable as Sharon had entered. "I rather wish I wasn't." he told her honestly.

She thrust what turned out to be a steaming mug of tea at him, "Here, you look like you need this more than I do."

"No, there's coffee upstairs." Liam said, going to push himself to his feet. A wave of light-headedness and Sharon's firm had on his shoulder made him sit back down.

Sharon thrust the mug into his hands, "This is better for you than coffee. The morning shift doesn't start for fifteen minutes so don't try to drink it too quickly or you're going to add a burned mouth to your list of healing injuries."

With a wince Liam thought back to the last time he had been awake, "Did I actually drink that much Skella-grow?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Let me see your arm, the one that was broken."

He shifted the mug to his other hand and extended his free arm out to her. "This was the only thing I actually broke, right?"

"Yes, but you cracked plenty of other bones to make up for it." she replied, carefully feeling his arm around where the break had been. "You, um, cut your hand open too."

"That I remember." He sipped cautiously at the tea; it proved to be black and quite strong.

"There might be a problem." She let his arm go and glanced at his other hand.

His first instinct was to follow his gaze, but he knew from looking that his palm only showed a scar. After a second he realized what she was actually talking about and frowned at her, "Why?"

"There's another Auror, he was the one that found you. He came to see you last night. And…" This close Liam could see her eyes flick guiltily to the side. "I told him you were my tutor at Hogwarts."

"Sharon-"

"I know!" She cut him off, "I'm sorry, I was flustered and it just, kind of, slipped out. He was really suspicious about your fall; I think he put together how you got that cut on your hand."

Almost imperceptibly Liam's eyes narrowed, "What's the name of this Auror?"

"Xerxes Break. He's that one that just lost his eye, you remember?"

"Him?" Liam looked up briefly as he did a search of the mental rolodex and sighed when he found the right 'card'. "_Him_." he repeated, his voice distinctly irritated. "He never does his paperwork right. You told him how I tutored you?"

She nodded. "That's all though, I swear."

After a moment's thought Liam seemed to come to a conclusion. "I don't think it will be a problem but you should be careful if you talk to him again."

"I'm always careful!" Sharon protested. "This time was just… an accident. I know what's at stake," She reached out and gently touched the hand he had curled around the mug, the hand that had been sliced open, "I won't ruin this, I swear."

"I know you won't, I told you before, I trust you." He offered the mug back, "I should get to work, here, I won't have time to finish this."

"Take it up with you," she told him, "Just remember to give the mug back later."

With a nod of thanks he slid off the bed, paused a moment to make sure the light-headedness of before had really passed and left.

* * *

Break was perched on Lunettes' desk, thoughtfully licking a lollipop. He had not slept well, but he rarely did now that most of his nights insisted on repeating the pattern of him lying awake and feeling his empty eye socket ache. All the same, he had a mug of coffee in hand that promised to fix any lingering doziness and he had a mission to fulfill, which kept his mind nicely occupied.

He was waiting for Lunettes and the man was late. That was odd, Lunettes seemed the type who was punctual to a fault.

Only a few leisurely sips of coffee later Break caught sight of the man he was looking for, he was making his way slowly down an aisle between two row of cubicles. He had a mug in hand looked very much like had slept in the clothes he wore now, attesting to the fact that he must have spent the entire night in the infirmary.

"Someone looks like they had an interesting night." he remarked to him when the other man drew level.

Lunettes frowned at him for a moment, then reached around him to flip a drawer of his desk open. From the drawer he drew a glasses case which he opened. Once the new glasses were on his nose he looked again at Break and apparently recognized him. "Oh. You."

"'Oh, me'?" Break echoed, raising an eyebrow, "You don't have to sound so very excited to see me."

"Wait a moment," Lunettes replied, shuffling through the papers on his desk. He located a stack and thrust it at Break. "This is the half of your report I've looked over. I meant to get to the rest but… something came up."

"I know," Break said, he stuck his lollipop into his coffee free a hand and took the stack, "I was there."

"Yes, Sharon mentioned something about that. I suppose I have you to thank for anyone finding me at all." he set a mug of what appeared to be tea on his desk and took his seat.

"Speaking of that incident," Break reached into a pocket of his robe, "I found these on the stairs last night, I suppose they'd be yours."

"Oh, that's what happened to them." Lunettes took the offered glasses and sighed when he saw that one of the lenses had broken. "I swear, these things," he drew his wand, tapping the glasses as he murmured, "Reparo." Then he switched the newly mended glasses with the old ones, setting the old ones in his desk.

"Your eyes are that bad?" Break asked curiously, he set the stack of papers in his lap so he could fish his lollipop out of his coffee.

Lunettes made a face when he saw him pop the candy into his mouth. "That's disgusting. And, yes, they are."

"It tastes quite good. Your eyes really change that much between one pair and another?" He was actually interested, nearsightedness was not all that common in a world of magical healing, it was only in the case of negligence or accident that anyone ever ended up dependent on glasses. Snagging the glasses Lunettes had set on the desk Break held them up over his eyes. "My, my, someone's awfully short-sighted, aren't they?"

Leaning over Lunettes gently tugged the glasses out of his hands. "They could be worse." he replied as he folded the glasses and put them back in their case. "These two pairs are only a little different, I wouldn't really care which I was wearing but my eyes can tell the difference. The older ones give me the worst headache."

Break crunched the end off of his lollipop thoughtfully. "That must be rather a pain."

"Yes," Lunettes replied absentmindedly, he was already sorting through a stack of scrolls of his desk. "It is. Was there anything else you wanted? I'll have the rest of your report back to you soon."

"It isn't important, take your time," Break said. As long as that report remained unsubmitted he had an excuse to keep coming into the office.

He never before he really thought about it but just about ever important document in the office came across Lunettes' desk at some point. Because the official format was a pain and mistakes caused a huge administrative snarl the Aurors opted to have their work checked over by the office elected proofreader -which was Lunettes, these days- and have it returned with neat red corrections. This seemed nice and sensible on paper but seeing the piles of work on Lunettes made Break feel vaguely guilty.

Especially since he knew he was a major contributer to those piles.

He flipped through the report in his lap, wincing at the amount of red ink he saw and not just because those were all things he would have to correct. It was undeniable that a certain someone had spent some time correcting this haphazardly written report; Break hadn't felt bad when he'd slapped it together, but he did now.

"Liam, there's- oh, you have a guest." Nightray stood in the opening of the cubicle, his bicolored eyes regarding Break with interest.

"Who…" Lunettes looked up from his paperwork and seemed to notice for the first time that Break was still sitting on his desk. "Oh, he's-" he gave a slightly panicky look from Break to Nightray, "He's just leaving, Vince."

"That's right," Break slid off the desk and waved the papers in Nightray's direction. "I was only getting these. And…" he didn't turn to look at Lunettes but kept his eyes on Nightray's face, "I wanted to see how Lunettes was after that nasty fall."

There was flicker in Nightray's eyes of something -annoyance perhaps?- and then he smiled pleasantly. "How nice of you. Yes, Liam, I would like to know too, how are you feeling?"

They both looked to Lunettes, who colored visibly under the double attention. "I'm fine." he said quickly.

"That's good," Nightray said, "Especially because I just passed Barma and he told me he wants to see you."

"Of course," Lunettes reached out to pick up a rather thick stack of paperwork.

"You've been spending a lot of time working with Barma lately," Nightray remarked. "Should I be jealous?"

Lunettes colored slightly more, saying," N-no, certainly not. He's got quite the backlog of work, you see, and he needs my help to make any headway. I… I had better go help him." He took another few scrolls in hand before leaving.

As Nightray drifted back to his own desk he gave Break a distinctly dirty look over his shoulder and Break had to work to suppress a grin. Nightray was oddly territorial of a man who he had no problem pushing down a flight of stairs and leaving to bleed.

Those were thoughts to store away and ponder carefully later.

In the meantime he went back to his desk to look over the part of the report Lunettes had given him. Just the sight of all that red was enough to make him sigh. He found a blank scroll and took out his wand, as much as he hated redoing these things he would have to start on this in case one of the superiors came around to get on his case for being in office on his medical leave and not even working.

Tapping the revised paper with his wand he picked up a quill and gave it too a tap before setting it on the blank scroll. Immediately the quill began copying out the words from the original papers. When it came to the first edit the quill stopped and waited for him to check and gave it a confirmatory tap before it went on.

And then he raised his eyes from his work and saw Tamara everywhere. Up to this point he'd done a very good job of ignoring all the pictures he had pinned up, but when he looked up he could have sworn the Tamara in each of them was staring at him. Accusing. Dark eyes saying, "Why didn't you save me, Xerxes Break? Why did you leave me to die?" He stood up, so abruptly that his chair fell backwards, and scooped up his paperwork.

Oscar was on the afternoon shift and wouldn't be in for a bit, so Break settled down to do his paperwork at his desk instead. There he was safe from accusing eyes. He propped up his head on his hand and watched his quill industriously scribble back and forth.

When Oscar came in some time later (early for his shift) he rolled his eyes to find Break set up at his desk. "What're you doing here?"

Propping up his feet on Oscar's desk Break gave him a grin. "Nothing at all, as usual."

"If that's the case then I need you to scoot." Oscar waved a hand at him. "I've got a lot of paperwork to wade through before shift starts."

"Ah, I see how it is," Break sighed in mock resignation, gathering his papers into his arms. "I'll just clear out then."

"You're not supposed to be here at all, Break. Don't you have medical leave until the higher ups decide whether you're up for work again?"

He shrugged. "I suppose I do."

"Then why are you here?" Oscar asked. When he got no answer he turned to look at Break, only to find that he was gone. He rolled eyes. "Why do you always have to do that?"

* * *

An hour later Lunettes came back to his desk to find Break set up there, licking a lollipop thoughtfully and watching his quill whizz back and forth over parchment, happily rewriting. He regarded him for a moment, as if mentally weighing him up and debating something then dumped his armful of scrolls onto his desk.

"What have you been up to?" Break asked wickedly.

"None of your business Xerxes Break." Lunettes snapped. He glanced sideways at Break, opened a desk drawer, and hastily stuffed some of the scrolls out of sight.

"You've been helping Barma this entire time? What could he possibly be up to?"

"He's very far behind in his paperwork," Lunettes said. "It took a while to straighten out."

"Why do you have to help him with it? Don't you have rather a bit of work yourself," he nodded toward the many stacks of paper on his desk. "Isn't there someone else Barma could get?"

Lunettes paused, blinking. "I suppose I never thought about it like that." then he shook his head. "But it doesn't really matter, since Barma is never going to be able to dig himself out without help and he prefers mine."

Leaving over his parchment Break read the edit the quill had paused for him to look over and tapped the quill with his wand to authorize it. Because he was looking down he didn't notice the new arrival and looked up quickly at the sound of his voice.

"Oh, will you look at this."

While Break looked up quickly to see that Nightray was leaning against the cubicle wall, Lunettes did the opposite, looking down as his fingers clenched on the papers he held until he creased them.

A smile crossing his lips that (for some reason he couldn't put his finger on) made the little hairs on the back of Break's neck Nightray came forward. "I don't think I've ever seen you so sociable, Xerxes Break. Are you feeling particularly chartable today?"

"Just particularly lonely." he replied blithely.

"Ah, yes, your partner died, didn't she?" Nightray asked.

The look Lunettes shot Nightray was startled, but he didn't protest his own partner's bluntness.

"She did." Break said flatly. "You know, you should take care of your partner, they're easier to loose than you'd think."

Nightray reached out and put an arm around Lunettes shoulders. A possessive arm. "Oh, I take very good care of mine." he said.

Break did not miss the way Lunettes flinched when Nightray touched him, shying away from the arm on his shoulders.

"Just keep him away from stairs in the future, eh?"

"Of course." Nightray's smile edged on the sinister. "Now, Liam," he turned that smile on Lunettes, who shrunk back from it a little, "The shift's over, we should leave."

"I-" Lunettes' eyes flickered to Break, then back to Nightray. "Just let me get my cloak."

Removing his arm Nightray said, "Sure."

Break raised a mental eyebrow. Had that been pleading in Lunettes' look? Or was he just imagining things?

Perhaps he was.

Lunettes settled his cloak around his shoulders and Nightray took possession on his hand. "Let's be off then."

"One moment," Lunettes said and turned to Break, "Don't make a mess of my desk."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Break replied.

Then Nightray all but dragged Lunettes away.

Break settled back in the chair, popping a candy into his mouth thoughtfully. Well, Lunettes hadn't told him to leave, had he, so he might as well finish. He leaned forward and authorized another edit.

An hour and a half later the rewrite was done and he got up. Then, almost as an afterthought, he tapped a desk drawer with his wand, filling it with brightly wrapped sweets.

* * *

**Keep you in the dark**

**You know they all pretend**

**(The Pretender)**

* * *

**TBC**


	4. Chapter 4

**The Pretender**

Clarification, Break needs a hobby other than bothering Liam.

**Chapter 4**

* * *

Both Aurors drew their cloaks in against the cold December wind. They had just left the Ministry by one of the side exits, and were heading toward the small apartment they shared. Most wizards would have Disapparated but Liam was exceedingly bad at it and Vincent walked to keep him company.

Usually he would have grumbled bitterly about the cold but today he was oddly quiet, something that made Liam dart several nervous glances at him as they walked.

Finally, Vincent asked, "Why is Xerxes Break suddenly hanging around you so much?" There was something about his tone that made this question not idle but something jealous, possessive.

Liam seemed not to notice the tone as his reply was casual. "He just seemed curious about how I was doing. After that fall, I mean."

"Ah, I suppose that is reasonable." Vincent said, but his voice didn't loose it's vaguely threatening undertone, as he asked, "About that, do you remember anything about what made you fall?"

With a sigh Liam shook his head. "Unfortunately no; it's all a blank. I don't even remember what I was doing in the stairwell in the first place. It must be because I hit my head."

"It must be." Vincent said mildly. He reached out and put a hand on the small of Liam's back, "Maybe it's for the best, eh?"

Trying, and failing, to restrain a flinch from even that minimal contact Liam said, "Perhaps."

"Wouldn't want you overburdened with painful thoughts, Liam, after all, I always want the best for you." Vincent shifted the hand on his back to around his waist and used it to pull him close. "You do know that, right? With my silly brother off chasing dreams you're all I have left right now. I wouldn't want you to…" his free hand dropped to the sheathed scissors at his hand, "Be dealing with nasty memories."

His eyes tracking down to the scissors and back up to Vincent's smile Liam went several shades paler and protested, "Really, I don't remember anything!"

Vincent's smile widened just a little and became, just for a few seconds, satisfied. "That's good." he said.

* * *

The next day Break was doing a perfectly decent job of ignoring the way all the photo-Tamara's were staring at him when Lunettes stormed up to his desk. Candy spilled from his hands to clatter across Break' desk as Liam demanded, "Are you responsible for this, Xerxes Break?"

Break, confused, looked between the brightly wrapped candies and Lunettes' expression of barely restrained fury. "Not a kind you like?"

At that Lunettes looked like he was about to rupture something, when his spoke his voice was clipped, angry, "What, exactly, do you mean by this," the stab of a finger indicated the sweets in question, "gesture?"

He blinked at Liam, honestly surprised in the face of the other man's anger. He almost replied, "I didn't really mean anything." but then the 'has a jealous partner' factoid floated back to the front of his memory. At that very moment he decided to give something a little try. "I was only thinking a young man with such broad shoulders shouldn't be so thin. At the risk of sounding like my mum, you need to get more meat on your bones." He gave said bones a speculative look. "You eaten yet?"

As expected Lunettes spluttered, completely thrown at that and went all red and flustered. "I- what?"

"Eaten." Break repeated, not at all guilty at the havoc he had no doubt just created in Lunettes' brain by the speculative look. "Tea. Have you had it yet?"

"… well, no, but-" Lunettes started to reply but Break was up out of his seat before Lunettes could finish the sentence.

"Then let's go out!" he said cheerily. "Take a tea hour with me." And he herded the still confused Lunettes back to his desk to collect his cloak and then out the door.

* * *

It was quite hilarious how easily he ended up with a very confused looking Lunettes sitting across the tiny table from him in his favorite café. And Tamara had always said he was so bad with people!

"My usual, Marrie!" he called to the café waitress, glad they had one because he didn't dare leave Lunettes alone at the table, the man would probably bolt back to the safety of his desk the moment he left him alone, "And enough tea for two!"

The waitress raised an eyebrow at his companion but didn't comment, instead sighing and taking her wand from her robe -this shop was owned by a witch who hired only from the magical community- to start conjuring cakes onto her tray.

"What do you prefer?" Break asked Lunettes. "Cake? Scones? Something else?"

"A… scone?" Lunettes offered as if he wasn't sure it was the right answer.

"Righty. Well, this place has lovely raspberry scones -you like raspberry?" When Lunettes nodded, appearing rather overwhelmed, Break called to the waitress, "Add a raspberry scone to that, would you, Marrie?"

"Of course." said the waitress, giving her wand an extra flick to conjure a new plate onto her tray. She made her way to their table and began unloading her tray onto their table. All but one plate went in front of Break. "Anything else you want before I go?" she asked Break.

"That's it." he told her and she retreated.

Lunettes was observing the mass of plates in front of Break, eyeing the slices of cake on each of them. "You… like cake?" he asked eventually.

Break chuckled. "That's putting it a bit mildly, I think." He picked up his fork and began in on the first cake. "This place has a wonderful chief."

"I didn't even know it was here." Lunettes said, breaking his scone in half and inspecting it, as if he thought there might be something inside. "I thought there weren't many wizard run shops in this area."

After chewing the massive bite of cake in his mouth industriously and swallowing Break said, "Oh, there's a bunch of them, what with the Ministry being so close." His answer was perhaps a little vague because he was watching Lunettes intently.

Instead of starting on his scone Lunettes reached up with on hand to finger his earring -Break only noticed now that his ears were pierced, the earrings were small rings, very easy to miss- and if Break hadn't been watching very closely he might have missed the barest glimmer of magic being activated.

Then Lunettes dropped his hand from the earring and picked up one of the halves of his scone. He bit into it and made a surprised noise. "This _is_ good." he said after he'd swallowed.

"I told you so." Break said, without really thinking exactly how childish it sounded.

Had he just seen Lunettes _check_ his food? It was true Aurors were paranoid but not usually to this existent this early in their career.

To cover up that embarrassment and to test what he'd just inferred he offered one of the plates to Lunettes. "Try some of this."

"I wouldn't want to-"

"I'm not in the habit of giving away cake often." he said, face completely solemn. "I'd take it."

Without further protest Liam took a forkful of cake. Break watched his other hand, which started toward his earring casually. Again there was the subtlest hint of magic and only when that happened did Lunettes eat the cake. If Break hadn't been watching with such a suspicious eye the entire thing could have looked just like a nervous gesture. It was very well played. His opinion of Lunettes rose several notches.

He poured tea and got Lunettes into conversation again, this time about the shops run by wizards in the streets around them which Lunettes knew surprisingly little about.

"I suppose I just don't get out much for anything but work." Lunettes admitted. "I didn't do an exploring when I moved here, I was too busy."

"But surely you've lived here for a while," Break said, "Not just as an Auror but when you were training."

"I've only lived here for… oh, only a little more than two years."

Break's fork paused halfway to his mouth. "But what about when you were in training?" he asked.

"I did all my Auror training in Ireland." Liam said. "And then there was a vacancy here so I transfered."

"That's rather… odd."

"Not really. I'm Irish."

At that Break blinked and then stared at him, he was just opening his mouth to reply when Lunettes rolled his eyes and said, "Ye be wonderin' why ya didn' noticed til now. Everyone told me no one takes someum who sounds like a bloody Leprec'aun seriously 'ere." his voice was thick with the accent that there had been no trace of before. "So I'sn put effort inta loosien' it afore I got transfered." He sighed, "It still sneaks through on the occasion."

"I've never heard it before." Break remarked. "I suppose I wasn't listening for it. All the same, I'm one for talking, I'm American."

Liam eyed him skeptically, "You sound very English."

"My mother was English." said Break lightly. "And I spent almost all my summers here before I finally moved to London to start training. I sort of thought the same thing as you; I didn't want to be the odd American out so I cultivated the accent."

"Did your family move from America when you did?" Liam asked, curiously.

"No." Break said but not harshly. "I moved on my own. But what about you? It must be hard living so hard from your family."

"Not really… they died." Liam said shortly. "A long time ago."

"I'm sorry." Break offered.

"It was a long time ago."

In the rather awkward silence that followed Break took a few bites of cake and then said, "By the way, how are you doing? Even with healing that fall must still hurt."

"Not as much as you'd think." Lunettes picked up his tea and used drinking it to buy time, which Break only caught because he was looking for that kind of thing. "Everything I cracked just aches."

"Do you have any idea idea how it happened?" Break asked, schooling his face into simple curiosity.

Lunettes frowned, but not at Break, more to himself. "I remember I went to the back stairwell to talk to Vincent, he smokes sometimes, you see, and then… we were talking about something or other, I don't remember what. He must have left eventually because if he'd been there when I fell…" his frown deepened, "Well, he'd have done something. So it must have been after he left that I slipped or something."

"Are you sure he left?" Break asked.

"… What do you mean?" Lunettes returned cautiously.

The conversation had gone so well up to this point and he was loth to ruin it but if he didn't push at this Break knew it was unlikely he would get anything from Lunettes. "I mean, what if Vincent was still there when you fell?"

"But surely he would've-"

Break cut him off with, "Not if he was the one who pushed you."

That made Lunettes go very still. "You honestly think that Vincent would do that? He's my partner, Xerxes Break."

"Not a very good one." Break commented, trying to keep the acid out of his voice.

"Not every team is close." Lunettes replied.

"I've heard that you and Vincent are close." Break snapped. "_Very_ close."

There was the snap of real anger behind Lunettes' eyes and his fingers sunk into the tablecloth as he gripped the edge of the table. "Oh, you know about that do you." His tone was rigidly controlled evenness. "Then there's no point in this conversation because you obviously don't understand how impossible what you're suggesting is." He rose from the table but Break reached across it and grabbed the sleeve of his robe.

"Look at your hand!" he protested. "That cut on it," Lunettes frowned for a moment and then raised the other hand to look at the pale scar on the palm. "You didn't get that from a flight of stairs. Your partner is known for carrying scissors, he could have-"

Lunettes shook off Break's hand angrily, "I don't know what you think you're doing, coming to me with all of this but you're wrong. You're mistaking a simple accident as something - something impossible!" He glared at Break but his hands were clenching at his sides, real fury in the whiteness of his knuckles. "Find something better to do with you time than thinking up insane theories for perfectly reasonable things!"

"But that cut-"

Before he could even finish the protest Lunettes had turned and vanished on the spot with the sharp crack of Disapparation.

"That looks like it went well," Marrie said, approaching to take empty the plates from his table.

Break sighed. "It went even worse than I'd expected to."

* * *

He was very lucky that he didn't splinch himself by Disapparating as suddenly as that, Liam was not very good at it even at the best of times and when under stress or upset he got even worse at it. Despite the fact that he'd managed to make it to outside the Ministry without leaving anything behind still he arrived out of breath and rather disheveled.

After tugging his robes straight Liam retreated back into the Ministry; even if that dammed Xerxes Break followed him he wouldn't be able to Aparate to exactly where he was if he was inside the Ministry's layers of protective spells. He didn't go back to his desk either, both because he didn't want to be that easy to find -it was a good thing Vincent wasn't on shift with him today or he would have to do some explaining- and because there was something he wanted to do. Sharon would be just ending her shift in the infirmary and if he waited long enough by the door she would eventually emerge.

She did not much later and she only had to glance at his expression and the way he was standing to grab his wrist and drag him home. Not _home_ home because that would have required going all the way back to Ireland, and he couldn't do that for several reasons, but home to the little apartment she lived in over an equally tiny grocery store. There she pushed him firmly into a kitchen chair and proceeded to make tea.

It was a symptom of growing up around the Rainsworth family women that he let her do all this, after a while one got rather used to any Rainsworth girl immediately putting herself in charge of any situation she found herself in; that was what had made her mother and grandmother such wonderfully good healers. Having grown up around the family Liam was long used to this treatment and found it oddly comforting.

By the time Sharon handed him a steaming cup of tea he was no longer as off balance and reeling as he had been when Break had dragged him off. Sharon took the chair across from him and settled her own teacup on the table. "What can I do?" she asked.

"I need to know exactly what Xerxes Break said and did when he talked with you." Liam said, glad she knew better than to ask the obvious, "What's wrong?"

She took her meditative sip of her tea before answering, "He was very curious about your fall, he seemed very sure Vincent pushed you. I mean, he even cut open his own palm with a pair of scissors and had me heal it to compare the wounds. Oh, and he asked if you'd been acting odd lately."

"What did you tell him?"

"That you hadn't." she replied, "But he looked suspicious all the same. Why do you ask, has something happened -I mean, something you can tell me about?"

"…nothing much. I might be jumping at shadows but… he dragged me out to tea and kept trying to get me into conversation. This isn't the first strange thing he's done around me either." Liam sighed. "I don't know what he getting at and I very much want to so it'll stop bothering me."

The giggle that Sharon gave wasn't quite caught by the hand she put over her mouth.

"What's so funny?"

"There's an explanation for all this that you haven't thought of, Liam." she said.

"What?"

"The man just lost his partner and I don't think he was that close with anyone else, maybe he's lonely. Maybe he wants a friend."

That made Liam blink for a moment, surprised. "A… friend?" He gave that a minute of thoughtful contemplation then said, "You know, I think I can use that."

* * *

**Send in your skeletons**

**Sing as their bones go marching in...**

**(The Pretender)**

* * *

**TBC**


	5. Chapter 5

**The Pretender**

**Chapter 5**

* * *

Break wished his eye socket would stop aching so he could get more than a few hours of sleep. It would certainly improve his temper and make the pause on the back stairwell to smoke a comforting cigarette not as necessary. Then he might be on time for work too.

Then again, if anyone noticed that they would surely faint away with shock, _Xerxes Break_ on time for something.

He stubbed his cigarette out on the wall and dumped the butt into his pocket. It was time to go to his desk and pretend like he was filling out his paperwork. Who knew how long he was going to get away with coming in on his medical leave and all but twiddling his thumbs. Before long the sympathy for what he had gone through would be gone and he'd be expected to do his job again. That would be a shame; he really didn't feel like doing productive things and a case would take him away from the little project he'd been planning.

Lunettes needed a friend, he had decided. If he had to be partnered with that Nightray than there should be at least be another friendly face in the office. Besides, there was something about Lunettes that niggled at him, something that was just a bit… off. Not in a bad way, or he would be doing more than just passively watching him but all the same, he did bear watching.

In the office there was a flurry of movement, people bustled between the cubicles, gathering into small groups, talking in low voices for a moment and then dispersing. Apparently something had happened. Internally Break winced. Among Aurors that usually meant someone, or several someones, were dead.

He hoped it wasn't someone he knew.

There was a surprise waiting for him at his desk, or, rather, sitting on the edge of his desk. Lunettes glanced up at his approach and gave him a tentative smile. "You're late." he said, but not in an accusing tone.

"I usually am." Break replied easily. "Well, this is a surprise; I thought you were vexed with me."

"I thought about things." Lunettes said. "Overnight, I mean. I overreacted. Sorry." he offered the last bit tentatively. That made Break blink in surprise but Lunettes wasn't done surprising him. He picked up the plastic box next to him and offered to him. "I made too much lunch this morning for Vince and I to eat. Since you took me to tea yesterday I thought I'd pay you back."

He took the box, rather touched. "Thank you." Between the late morning and some nausea brought on by pain he hadn't eaten anything that day. The smell of food was already making his stomach growl.

Without further ado he plopped into his chair, dug a fork out of his desk, and popped the lid off the food. It was something vegetably and chickeny over rice and he had a forkful halfway to his mouth before something in what Lunettes said sunk in. He lowered the forkful back into the box. "You cook for your partner?" he asked, working to make his tone just curious; if that implied what he thought it did…

"Yes." Lunettes said with a shrug. "It makes sense. Vince isn't a very good cook."

"You live with your partner?" Break asked very carefully. He was worried the rage he felt leaked through when Lunettes frowned at him. "I thought you didn't like him much."

"I…" Lunettes paused and shrugged. "The lease on my apartment was almost up and he was looking for a roommate. It just sort of worked out that way."

The thought of Lunettes living with that rat was rather sickening. There was partnership and then there was… this. This was wrong and he didn't like it one bit because it made him think of how Lunettes flinched every time Nightray touched him. He would have told the man that he needed to find a new partner right there and then but he knew he would probably get a similar reaction to the one he had gotten when he'd suggested Nightray pushed him so he held his tongue.

Since it was still in his hand he took a bite of the food Lunettes had made and his eyebrows went up. "This is good."

"Of course it is." Lunettes said easily, he smiled a smile that had a touch of pride in it. "I made it."

"You like cooking?"

"I do. It's… comforting. Like doing paperwork it comforting."

The look Break angled him was skeptical. "I'll have to take your word for that last one."

"That's right, you hate paperwork." Lunettes said. "Are you ever going to finish that report?"

"Nope." Break answered, which was completely honest. He had no intention of _ever_ finishing that report if he could help it.

Lunettes scowled at him and looked like he was going to give him a lecture when the red headed and extremely senior Auror Rufus Barma walked back the desk. "Lunettes, my office." He snapped. "Paperwork."

That made Lunettes hastily slide off the desk. "Leave the box on my desk when you're done with it?"

"Of course." Break said and gave him a lazy wave with him fork as Lunettes hurried off after Barma.

* * *

"What do you think you're doing Lunettes?"

"I'm working a new angle, sir."

"By hanging around that Break maverick?"

"Nothing I've done has gotten us what we need. I think this will work. In fact, I'm sure it will get results."

"Be careful Lunettes, you're taking too many risks already."

"It's alright, sir. I have this under control."

* * *

After Lunettes left Break chewed his lunch thoughtfully mulling over what he'd just seem. It was true Barma had a reputation for being arrogant but most would have protested being ordered about like Barma had just done to Lunettes. But Lunettes hadn't even complained, though he probably had quite a bit of work to back at his own desk. Why help Barma when he was so damn rude?

He set the now empty box on his desk and settled his chin on his fist to think. If he treated this like a case he'd been given the first logical step was to do research, to see what that that turned up to work with. There were records on every Auror here, where they came from, where they trained, and who they had worked with. It was true they were confidential, but a high ranking Auror would have access. If he couldn't manage to niggle his way into those records he wasn't Xerxes Break.

The route he took to the records room wasn't direct, he talked with Oscar for a bit, got some coffee, drifted around the office looking harmless, and whisked into the records room when no one was looking. He charmed the door locked behind him and went to the filing cabinets that walled the entire room. Tapping one of them at random he said, "Auror personal files."

The spell on the cabinets lit up, if he didn't put in a senior Auror's code in thirty seconds it would shriek his presence to the entire office. With a malicious smile he spoke in Barma's code. He wouldn't know it but Barma was sometimes careless about leaving the records room door open when he went to find files and he'd overheard it a year or so ago.

When he spoke the words the alarm spell faded and one of the drawers popped open. He rifled through it until he found the folder that had Lunettes' name on it and took it out. Skimming the file he found that Lunettes had been telling the truth, this said that he had done his training in Ireland. But there was something about this file that was bothering him, even though he couldn't put his finger on it. He tapped the cabinets again. "I want transfer papers, any that show a transfer from the Irish Ministry to this one."

A different drawer opened and two scrolls floated out, each labeled with a name. Catching both Break threw the other back into the drawer after seeing it didn't have the right name on it. Looking at the label on the other one he realized what it was that had bothered him. Lunettes' name was spelled Lunetes on both.

He frowned. Official documents were checked and rechecked for errors, and it was quite likely that Lunettes had done these himself, being as he did so much of the office's paperwork. Why would he spell his own name wrong not only once but twice?

Maybe he was going to have to dig even deeper to turn up the answer. Quietly he replaced the files and slipped back out of the records room.

* * *

**So who are you?**

**Yeah, who are you?**

**(The Pretender)**

* * *

**TBC**


	6. Chapter 6

**The Pretender**

**Chapter 6**

* * *

The next week fell into a pleasant rhythm. After finding out what shifts Lunettes was working, Break traded a few with Oscar so he could have more time to work on befriending him. Not that it was difficult, since Lunettes was being rather openly friendly, and appeared to intend to make a habit of making too much lunch for him and Vincent to eat whenever they had a lunch shift. The food was welcome since Break usually went out to eat, not being all that good a cooking.

He paid him back for it by frequent donations of candy to Lunettes' desk and when Lunettes showed up for an evening shift looking upset and without anything like dinner Break dragged him off when it came time for the dinner break. Some careful probing Break found out that Nightray and Lunettes had had a row, though he wouldn't say what about, and there was a red welt across the back of Lunettes' hand that he flatly refused to talk about.

Nightray kept his distance during this week, approaching Lunettes only when their shift was over and they were heading home. But he glared daggers at Break whenever he could get away with it and Break was sure that if Nightray caught him alone on the back stairwell _he'd_ probably be the one tumbling down them next.

"He's not that bad." Lunettes said one morning shift when Break had sat on the floor of his cubicle to escape all the pictures of Tamara at him own desk and stuck up a conversation. "He's just… possessive. He likes to think he owns a person and gets upset when they do things that prove he doesn't."

"Does he own _you_, Lunettes?" Break asked, looking up from his box of sweets. All he could see was Lunettes' back as the other man bent over his desk, writing. There was a muffling spell on the cubicle so asking a personal question wouldn't get either of them in trouble.

Lunettes' shoulders tensed, then they relaxed. "Liam." he said.

"What?"

"No one calls me by my first name these days but Vincent." Lunettes said. "I sort of miss it."

His eye narrowed but he popped another sweet into his mouth and said. "Well, why not. Wouldn't wanting you to go forgetting your own name." Unlike, he added internally, you apparently did your last name when you wrote those transfer papers.

Some of that sarcastic thought must have slipped into his tone because Lunettes turned to give him a an odd look. "What was that about?"

"Oh, nothing." Break said with a grin that he hoped was terribly distracting. "Just thinking devious thoughts."

"I don't doubt it." Lunettes said dryly. "By the way, are you planning on _ever_ finishing that report?"

He actually stopped to consider his answer before remembering where he'd gotten to in the recital of events on paper and then he gave his usual flippant reply. "Nope."

Though his expression said he hadn't expected anything else Lunettes -or rather, Liam, rolled his eyes. "You do know you're going to have to do it eventually."

"Well, I'm still on medical leave." he shrugged. "What does anyone care what I get up to when technically I'm going it on my own time?"

"That's not going to last forever." Lunettes said warningly. "And pretty soon someone's going to notice what you're up to."

Break made a dismissive gesture. "Well, of course. But in the meantime I'm free to do as I wish."

"When aren't you?" Liam muttered in a tone too annoyed to be sincere about it.

And Break threw a candy at the back of his head.

* * *

Two days from that talk Break had slipped out of the office to the back stairwell for a smoke when he had a most unwelcome visitor. One of the double doors creaking open gave him enough warning to turn and see Vincent Nightray entering before he was right behind him.

"Why hello there." said Nightray, the smile crawling across his face unpleasant. He made no move to take out a cigarette.

Break gave him a nod and moved so the man wasn't standing where it was so hard to see him. He was still getting used to having such a blind spot and the idea of Vincent Nightray in it made him quite nervous. He didn't quite reach into his pocket for his wand but his hand did itch to, there was something about Nightray that he just _didn't like._

Drifting over to stand next to him Nightray somehow managed to position himself on the edge of his blind spot again, forcing Break to turn his head to keep him in his sightline. "That's quite a nasty habit." Nightray commented.

With a casual flick of ash off the end of his cigarette Break said, "Then I suppose it makes perfect sense for you to do it too. How fitting."

"Now that's not very nice." Nightray pouted. "Whatever have I done to you?"

Thinking about the red welt across the back of Lunettes' hand and the way the man flinched when Nightray touched him Break gave him a grim little smile. "Oh, nothing."

The step Nightray took toward him had the distinctive cast of something threatening. "You know, I have noticed the large amount of time you suddenly seem to be spending around my partner. Trying to fill a hole, Break?"

The offhand mention of Tamara made Break grit his teeth. "Your partner is nothing like her."

"Then why are you trying to steal him away?" demanded Nightray, his voice suddenly vicious.

Cigarette halfway to his mouth Break froze. "What?" he asked.

"That is what you're up to, isn't it." Nightray's tone had dropped to a deadly hiss and the hand he dipped into his robe came up with his wand. "Pouring poisonous thoughts into his ears."

For the first time Break really looked into those bicolored eyes and saw the insanity lurking in them. How on earth had the rest of world failed to see this? How had _he_? He arranged his face into a mildly surprised expression. "It looks as if you already have some poisonous thoughts of your own. I'm not after stealing your partner."

He moved even closer. "Ah, but that's exactly what you would say if you were."

"You don't leave me a lot of room to prove my innocence." Break said, quietly letting his cigarette fall from his fingers so both his hands were free. "It seems as if you have already made up your mind that I'm guilty."

"Because you are." Nightray said calmly. And then he lashed out with a spell.

Thankfully Break had been expecting this and he had his wand out before the spell was even fully formed on Nightray's lips. The shield he summoned bounced the spell back at Nightray, who had to dodge out of the way to avoid it. Break took the opportunity to back up toward the opposite wall to give himself room to fight.

Both men observed each other, wands drawn, each practically vibrating with adrenaline and restrained urge to do violence on each other.

They might have done just that had the door to the stairwell not opened just then. Oscar Vessalius paused at the scene he'd walked into and blinked. "Um… do I want to know?"

That broke the tension which had been edging toward bloodshed. Nightray was the first to lower his wand, followed by Break. The smile Nightray gave Vessalius was innocent. "Just a minor disagreement."

Break made a vague sound of assent; he had yet to take his eyes off of Nightray, who he expected of anything at the moment.

"Right." Oscar said, his voice skeptical. "Minor, huh?"

"Very." Nightray stowed his wand. "So minor I don't feel it worth pursuing further. And there's work for me to get back to, Liam will be most distressed if it's not done." So saying he began to drift toward the door.

"Yes," Break said. "I imagine _Liam_ would be."

Nightray's shoulders stiffened. The he turned just enough to give a razor edged smile over his shoulder. "Keep imagining." he said and then left.

A few moments of stunned silence later Oscar brought a cigarette and thoughtfully lit it with his wand tip. "You know, I don't think that could have been more awkward."

With a sigh Break too got out a cigarette to replace the one of the currently on the floor and ground the first one out with the toe of his boot. He lit the new cigarette and very gladly took the first comforting drag off it. "It could have been worse."

"You had each other by wand point. I don't see how it could be worse than that." Oscar said.

"I'm not bleeding at the bottom of the stairs." he pointed out. "Everything's up from there."

"Did anyone ever tell you you're quite the optimist?"

"Aaaaall the time." Break drawled back. It was fine that when Oscar moved to stand next to him that he was standing on his blind side, Oscar Vessalius he trusted.

"You have been spending an awful lot of time hanging around Lunettes. The office is rife with rumor, especially since no one's really ever seen you look twice at someone let alone take an interest in them." Oscar blew a smoke ring. "I don't suppose you'd decide to let me in on what you're trying to do, beyond braving Nightray's wrath by befriending Lunettes like we're all too leery of those scissors attempt to."

"Now that would ruin all the fun." he chirruped cheerfully. "And you're assuming I have some grand, elaborate plan behind what I'm doing. I could just be making this up as I go along."

"Because I know you." Oscar replied just as cheerfully. "And you're not the type to take interest in people unless there's something holding that interest. Plus looking at Lunettes with a casual eye it's hard to see what would make you so interested."

"He might surprise you." Break blew a cloud of smoke and then made a small motion with his wand, which made the smoke into a nice little star, before it dispersed. "He's got quite a temper."

"I've actually noticed that already," chuckled Oscar, "He's come after me a few time times because my paperwork's been off. And don't change the subject."

Break shrugged. "Well, feel free to think up some spectacularly evil shenanigans for me to be involved in. I would hate for my reputation to be besmirched by not sounding as if I'm half as conniving as the others think I am."

"I'll get right on that." Oscar replied.

* * *

**What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?**

**(The Pretender)**

* * *

**TBC**


	7. Chapter 7

**The Pretender**

Welp Break, time to loose that Kevin haircut.

**Chapter 7**

* * *

It was what was rapidly becoming a normal day in the office for Break whenever he was on the same shift as Lunettes. Which was to say that he was currently over at the other man's desk, pestering him.

With an annoyed noise Liam batted Break's ponytail out of his face. "Do try to contain your hair, would you?"

Break had been leaning over his shoulder, the better to read what Lunettes was writing. He pulled the ponytail back over his shoulder and gave Liam a look of mock hurt. "Blaming my poor innocent hair for your distraction? How very unfair, surely your concentration isn't so fragile."

"Yes, but your hair _tickles_." Liam said crossly, but the kind of crossly that Break was learning meant he wasn't actually as annoyed as he seemed. "If you're going to insist on trying to read over my shoulder either contain it or cut it."

"You know, I've actually been thinking about doing just that." Break said casually, toying with the end of his ponytail. "It's been getting a bit much to take care of and I would be the first to say that I'm not one for excess work."

"Then why haven't you done it?" Liam asked.

Break shrugged. "I'd want to do it myself what with," his hand fluttered up to gesture vaguely at the bandages around the empty eye socket. "But I shudder to think of trying to cut it with magic."

"Don't try." Liam said at once, with such vehemence that Break glanced curiously at him. "That's how I ended up with short hair." he explained. "I botched it so badly that I had no choice but to cut it short."

"Then you'll have to endure this," Break waggled his ponytail at him, "A little longer then because I'm hardly going to a hairdresser." They would stare, would point when he wasn't looking, would whisper speculations among themselves just out of his hearing. He couldn't stand that.

"You don't have to. I can cut it." said Lunettes.

The look Break gave him must have been pure surprise because Lunettes said, "No need to look like that, I'm not that bad at it. And I'm offering a haircut with _real_ scissors and everything."

Brushing aside a grin summoned at the thought that of course an apartment where Nightray lived had scissors aplenty, Break said, "You would really do that?"

"Of course." Liam said easily. "It would be no problem."

"When?"

"After work. Come back to the apartment, it shouldn't take long."

"I don't know if that would be the best plan." Break could only imagine what would happen if he came home with Liam and Vincent Nightray was there- though he was less concerned for himself and more worried Nightray would take his anger out on Lunettes. "Your partner and I aren't on the best of terms."

"He'll be out tonight." Liam said. "And he won't be back until very late."

"How do you know that?" he asked.

"He's going to have dinner with his brother," Lunettes paused to sigh and Break wondered if it was the brother or Nightray himself that was the cause of that, "He doesn't get to see him very often so he tends to try to spend as much time with him as he can. If he's back before midnight I would be surprised."

"If you want to take that risk." Break said, his tone teasing.

Liam waved his veiled concern off. "It'll be fine and, besides, it needs to be done." he glowered at Break's hair.

Break gave a sniff. "I think I've just been insulted."

There might or might not have been a smile on Lunettes' face as he turned back to his papers. "Possibly."

* * *

Break took himself back to his desk after they had worked out the details. Lunettes would walk home with Nightray as he normally did and then Break would Apparate there an hour later so there was no chance he'd cross paths with Nightray. It seemed almost too good to be true, a chance to talk to Lunettes out of the office, somewhere where he would feel both relaxed and like he had the upper hand. Not only was it an excellent opportunity for gathering information but he was even going to get a haircut out of the deal.

It couldn't have gone better if he'd planned it… which made him feel oddly suspicious. But since he couldn't see any obvious traps or ill intentions he was tempted to wave it off as his mind being paranoid. Besides, he couldn't pass up this chance for information.

These were, of course, the thoughts he used to rationalize his choice, he also knew part of the reason he wanted to spend time with Liam was that he missed having a partner to do such things with. It was Tamara who had dragged him to a barber a few times a year to get his hair trimmed and with her gone he'd been letting it go ragged. Toying with the ends again he sighed. He knew that he was, to some extent, using Lunettes as a replacement, for _her_.

But it didn't bother him much, after all, it benefitted both of them. Liam got someone looking after him when he so obviously needed it and Break got a himself someone to pester and amuse and prod. That Lunettes came with an extra little puzzle was only a bonus.

Break spent the next few hours all but twiddling his thumbs at his desk, he had no intention of working further on his report and there was nothing else on his desk to start on even if he intended to do work today.

This, however, was something that he was perfectly fine with as it gave him plenty of time to think of how he was going to try to coax information out of Lunettes. He would have to go, carefully, of course, the slightest hint that he was information gathering and the man would no doubt clam up again. But if he played this the right way he was sure he could gain quite a lot of information out of this haircut.

Finally Break heard the sounds of the other Aurors in the cubicles around him packing up and getting ready to leave. Parchment crackled as scrolls were stowed away, ink bottles clinked as they were capped, and capes or cloaks rustled as they were pulled on by those who were heading home. Conversation buzzed around the office, most would drop by for a quick chat with those they knew well before they left (some of the more morbid commented that this was in case they never made it to work again -being an Auror was dangerous even off the clock).

Oscar leaned over their connecting wall and gave him a wide grin before he headed off, which said without words that he had spread the rumors far and wide. Break gave him a wicked grin in return before he left, though it dropped quickly from his lips once the man was gone. He enjoyed this game, certainly, but it had been more enjoyable when Tamara had been around to laugh at his antics.

With a sigh he leaned out of his cubicle and peered down the row to where Liam was standing, speaking to Nightray. The expression on his face was uncomfortable as Nightray stepped closer to him with an unpleasant smile on his face.

_He likes to think he owns a person._ The words that Lunettes had said made Break watch them closely and notice for the first time how Lunettes always shifted away from Nightray before stopping himself and shifting back. And how the smile on Nightray's face grew more nasty the closer Lunettes let him get.

That couldn't be normal. Or right.

After a little more talking Nightray put an arm around Liam's shoulders and together they walked out of the office. Just more a moment, as they were turning, Lunettes caught his eye and gave the slightest nod. He had known Break would be watching… well, well, well.

Leaning back in his chair Break put his feet up on his desk, tilting his chair back and settling in for at least an hour's wait before he could Apparate over safely. Now whatever would he occupy himself with?

The sudden thought made him drop his front chair legs back to the floor. That was something he'd forgotten completely. There was someone, someone in this very building, who seemed to know Liam quite well. In fact, she had told him herself that they had been childhood friends. And this was someone he had yet to pester for information.

He grinned at his own cleverness and went to see if Sharon was done her shift in the downstairs infirmary yet.

* * *

As it turned out she wasn't but he was content to wait the half hour one of the healers told him it would be until she left outside the doors to the infirmary; he unwrapped a lollipop so he could lick it thoughtfully while he waited.

When Sharon finally came through the doors she headed straight for him, a curious expression on her face. "Healer Reese said you were looking for me?"

"Just for the sake of a chat." he offered her a lollipop, this one red and in the shape of a heart.

She took it cautiously. "This isn't made of something horrible, isn't it?"

"Not unless you count sugar as something horrible." he took his own purple lollipop out of his mouth to show her with a flourish. "See, nothing nasty here."

That seemed to reassure her because she unwrapped her lollipop and gave it a cautious lick. "It tastes like strawberry." she said, sounding surprised.

"Well, it is red." he pointed out. "It wouldn't make much sense for it to be pineapple, now would it?"

"I suppose not." she gave the lollipop another lick. "So what do you want?"

"Do I have to want something to talk to you?" he gave her a wounded expression.

"Yes, usually."

The dramatic hand he clasped to his chest made her giggle in spite of the stern tone she'd just used. "You wound me. Acting as if I care for nothing but using people."

"Then why are you here?" she asked, but her voice was more indulgent than previously.

"Well, to tell you the truth I'm concerned about your friend."

"Ah! So you _do_ want something."

"No," he said, "Not really something it's just… well, he's in trouble. I'm sure you can see this as much as I can."

"Liam can take care of himself." Sharon said flatly.

"Maybe not this time." he cracked a piece off his lollipop with his teeth and she winced at the noise. "Maybe not with this person."

"I've known him for longer than you, I think I'm a better judge of that." her face had closed down and gone serious.

"Then did you notice that mark on the back of his hand?" Break traced a circle on the back of his hand, showing how large the bruise had been. "Do you want to venture a guess who gave him that?"

Sharon suddenly reached forward and grabbed him by the arm. For such a small girl she displayed admirable strength when she dragged him into a niche a little farther down the hall. Pushing him into the small space she leaned in close to him and whispered fiercely. "Now I know it's your job to push your nose into things that no one wants you to and find out things but _this_," she stabbed a slim finger into his chest, "This you need to leave alone. I don't care how curious you are, don't you dare go ferreting into this or you're going to ruin more than you could ever imagine. I won't let you do that to Liam, not after all he's been through."

"So you want me to walk away?" he asked quietly. "I'm afraid I can't do that now."

"Then at least stop digging." she snapped. "Be his friend if you have to but stop _looking_. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into."

"Why don't you let me in on this little secret that you know?" he smiled his best charming smile but she just scowled at him.

"I can't!" her voice raised in frustration and she winced, looking around to make sure no one else was in the hall to have heard them. She lowered her voice. "It's not that simple."

"Then this is how you're content to leave it? With your friend abused?"

"Do you think that I like the idea my best friend is being hurt?" she hissed. "Do you think that I would've just stood by if there was anything I could do to help him? Right now there's nothing I can do but be here for him when he needs me. And if you want to help him than that's what you should do. Be there. Stop treating him like some grand puzzle you want to figure out, it isn't right and you're fooling with things you don't understand."

And he couldn't deny she was wrong, part of what kept him bothering Lunettes was curiosity. He had wanted to know the man's secret so very badly. But that didn't mean that the time he'd spent befriending him hadn't gone both ways. Really he quite liked Liam, the man tolerated his antics almost as well as Tamara had.

And Break had been using him.

He spared a moment to feel a little shame and then his expression set. "I understand."

She looked a little surprised. "You… do?"

"I'll see to it that he isn't hurt anymore." he said and then he tapped her on the nose with his sticky lollipop, making her yelp and lean away. He used that as an opportunity to slip past her and into the hallway.

* * *

"That wasn't what I meant!" Sharon said furiously, hurriedly fishing out a handkerchief to clean the mess from her nose. But when she turned to shout after him she was alone in the hall.

Break Disapparated as soon as he was out of the Ministry building, to any Muggles watching it would have appeared as if he simply stepped behind a lamppost and, after a strange noise, never emerged from the other side.

When he appeared at his destination he was immediately sure that he'd made some sort of mistake. He was staring at a grey suit on a hanger, after all. And then he realized from the muffled light around the door and the faint smell of mothballs that he was in a closet -hopefully Lunettes' closet.

With a little fumbling he located the doorknob and opened the door. Only a few feet away stood Lunettes, holding a mug of steaming tea.

Liam must have seen him emerge from the corner of his eye because he dropped the mug and whirled, his hand going for his wand. He had it drawn by the time he faced Break and his lips were already forming the words of a spell, his face set in grim determination.

"Wait, it's me!"

* * *

**What if I say I will never surrender?**

**(The Pretender)**

* * *

**TBC**


	8. Chapter 8

**The Pretender**

Yes, I realized I messed some more ages up it was the only way to make something fit. Also I apologize for the delay in updating, real life decided it wanted a visit.

**Chapter 8**

* * *

"Wait, it's me!" Break said hastily, immediately regretting surprising an Auror. After all, he knew personally that they were an incredibly jumpy lot.

There was a very nasty moment when Break thought he should have ducked instead of talking, but Lunettes bit off his spell halfway through, dropping his wand to point at the floor. "Don't… don't do that!" he snapped, looking angry. "Don't ever do that again."

"You have good reflexes." Break said, his light tone somewhat ruined by the fact that his heart was hammering loud in his ears. "I had no idea. If I had I wouldn't have surprised you like that." His hand went to his chest, trying to get his heart to slow down by force of touch. This hadn't been a surprise he'd been anticipating.

Putting his wand away Liam snorted. "I would hope you wouldn't have. Now, get out of my closet."

At least it hadn't turned out to be Nightray's, Break reasoned as he did just that. "How is my timing?"

"Vince is gone." Liam replied. "We're in the clear." he glanced at the broken mug on the floor and the spilled tea. Evidently he decided to leave the cleanup for later because he gestured at Break to come with him into the next room. "I had enough time to set some things up."

Break followed him and was interested to see that Lunettes had set up a chair on a sheet that would presumably catch his hair as it fell. "Have you done this before?" he asked, settling into the chair as Liam indicated it was for him.

"A few times." Lunettes replied, his voice had that carefully casual tone about it that it got when Break started prying into things that Lunettes didn't want to go into detail about. "Don't worry, no one's lost an ear because of me yet."

He made of show of eyeing the scissors Lunettes was picking up. "I am so very comforted by that. Not that I like to bring this up, but those scissors. they aren't-"

"These aren't any of Vincent's." Liam was quick to tell him. "I keep a pair hidden."

Considering Nightray's well known liking for using the scissors he carried as a secondary weapon Break was quite glad of that. He glanced around that room, which seemed to be as immaculate as the bedroom he'd emerged from the closet in, even the attached kitchen looked quite neat. "This is a nice place."

Liam noted the direction of his looks. "Most of the time Vincent likes it neat."

That was when Break noticed how the curtains, at first glance completely normal, showed signs of having been cut with something sharp and then repaired again. Even with magic, the cloth still held the distinctive cut pattern.

He would have asked Lunettes about it, just to see what kind of reaction that got but Lunettes distracted him by choosing that moment to remove the tie from Break's hair and start running a brush through it.

"Ow." he said petulantly as the brush immediately caught a tangle. "Be careful with that."

"How on earth did you wash this without getting the tangles out?" Lunettes demanded. "I don't think I've even seen hair clean but this knotted."

He shrugged. "It seemed like too much effort to brush it out all the time. Do you really have to do that if -ouch!- you're going to cut it all off anyway?"

"Of course I do." Liam replied mildly. "Some of these knots are awfully deep. I'll get them and then get started."

Break grumbled under his breath, nothing distinct, just voicing his opinion on that.

Other than chuckling Lunettes made no reply to that so they passed the next few minutes in a rather companionable silence. The last person he'd let brush out his hair for him had been Tamara, which should have made this an awkward sensation, most things that reminded him of her were, but instead he could feel himself relaxing as the knots came undone.

It was only when Liam picked up the scissors that he felt a little nervous. "So… how many people's hair have you cut exactly?"

"A few." Liam was gathering all this hair into one hand and Break had to suppress the urge to crane his head around to see what he was doing.

"Like who?"

"Sharon's hair. A couple of times."

Break debated pushing, then decided it wouldn't hurt. "Sharon mentioned you and she come from the same area. Did you know each other growing up?"

Liam's hands stilled for a moment and Break thought he'd gone to far. Then Lunettes said, "We did." There was a _snick_ of scissors as he sliced through the hair he held and Break could feel it slither to the floor. That was the end of his ponytail days apparently. "Her family is quite large and runs heavy on women. They tend to adopt strays whenever they find them."

"And your own family?"

"Was still alive." Lunettes replied easily. "I had older brothers." He said that as if it was supposed to explain why he was a stray. The scissors began working at the ends of his hair, as fingers pulled layers up to get to the ones underneath.

"So the ladies often called on you for haircutting?" Break asked, rather curious.

"If they wanted a trim or something simple. When I was little I had convinced myself I was going to become a hairdresser."

"Why didn't you do it?" Break felt the cold metal of the scissors brush the back of his ear and had to suppress a shiver. It only then occurred to him that pressing Lunettes while the man was standing behind him with a pair of scissors wasn't the cleverest of plans.

Except Liam simply trimmed a bit of hair by his ear and moved on. "Ah, well, my father had this idea that all male hairdressers, muggle or wizard had to be gay." He chuckled. "As if the occupation itself decided it. Anything but that for his youngest. He wanted grandchildren from all of us."

Break craned his head back to look Lunettes in the eye. "But it didn't really matter what job you took, eh? I mean you are what you are?" After all, he was _with_ Nightray.

For a moment Liam looked startled, then the corners of his lips quirked up in a smile. "Yes, I suppose so."

His scissors worked in silence for a few minutes.

Then Break ventured, "About your family, when did they-"

"Let's talk about something else." Lunettes said abruptly. There was something in his voice, something forcibly calm. "Why don't we talk about your former partner. Tamara, wasn't it?"

He winced, glad Lunettes couldn't see his face, but he got the point that the other man was making. Just as painful to talk about, eh? Well, he'd up his ante then. "Sure. What do you want to know about her?"

The pause in the snipping the of the scissors was notable, but Liam recovered quickly. "Ah, um, what was she like?"

"Cheerful." he shrugged carefully, not wanting to making those scissors go somewhere they weren't supposed to. "Enthusiastic. Sometimes you wouldn't know we were fighting a war to listen to her. She was muggle born, you see, and thought everything about the wizarding world was a marvel. She was still young, too damn young to… well, you know."

"Wasn't she married?" there was something of a frown in his voice, as if he was mentally going through his notes on said women.

"Yes, when I first started working with her her last name was Sinclair. It took a while to get used to Tamara."

"Emily Sinclair… that's pretty."

Break sighed. "Yes. Yes it is… I mean… was."

"I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"I feel bad for bringing up something painful for you."

"I never said it was a painful subject." Break said.

"You were close, Tamara and you. So I assumed…" Lunettes trailed off.

"I do miss her." Break closed his eyes against the memory of blood and agony as his eye gave a phantom spike of pain. His voice turned quiet. "Quite often."

A few snips of the scissor later Liam said again, "I'm sorry."

"You know, that isn't something I want someone cutting my hair to be repeating."

His light tone gained a chuckle from Liam. "Good thing I've finished up, now isn't it?" He combed his fingers through Break's hair, patting some errant strands back into place. "Do you want to see?"

He nodded rather eagerly and Lunettes set down his scissors, drew his wand, and gave it a flick. A mirror floated in from another room, probably the bathroom and settled on the table in front of him. Break was inspecting the cut before the mirror even stopped moving, hand going up to touch his newly short hair. It didn't even touch his shoulders now, though the front bangs were still quite long. With the way Lunettes had combed it the strands fell thickly over his missing eye, almost completely concealing it but leaving his other eye uncovered.

Honestly he hadn't expected to like the results as much as he did, but that wouldn't keep him needling Lunettes just a little. "Now look at this. Here I had worried you were rusty." he tugged on one of the ends of his hair. "So much for my ponytail."

"Well, I thought you might like it like that over your eye, I mean, you were saying just the other day that you didn't want to wear an eyepatch."

Break turned to aim a smile up at Lunettes. "No, I like this. I do. Thank you."

For a moment Liam looked startled, as if he wasn't expecting thanks, then he returned the smile with one of his own. "It's a good thing you like it. The only spell I know to grow hair is a little heavy handed. It would give you hair down to your knees before I could stop it."

He gave his hair one last pat before turning away from the mirror. "Is there time to make tea before your partner returns? I have cake." That was something he often had a flick of a wand away.

Lunettes' smile this time was almost fond. "Of course you do. Come on, there's plenty of time."

* * *

The talk over tea had been mostly inane chatter, which Break hadn't minded. After getting Lunettes to talk so frankly about his family Break hadn't expected anymore nuggets of knowledge to come his way and didn't want to push for more. He did, however, note that Lunettes touched the earring he bet held a poison detection spell before he take the cake the Break had produced but not before he drank the tea. Sensible since Liam had made the tea himself and it hadn't passed from his sight sense then but just a little… sloppy.

Now Break was heading back to his home, the cake long devoured and the tea long drunk. It was just before midnight and he was keeping a careful eye out for Nightray, not wanting to be seen leaving the flat. That would defeat the purpose of his discretion. He could have just Apparated away, but he was feeling a little tired and didn't want to risk appearing somewhere he hadn't meant to.

It was a good thing he was watching out, he was able to duck into an alley when he caught a glimpse of Nightray headed his way, a young women at his side.

There was something strangely blank about her blue eyes as she looked up at Nightray.

"Yes, well, it wouldn't be long now." Nightray was saying to her. "Remember to keep carrying these little messages for me."

"Echo will remember." the young women replied, her voice blank of any infection. Break had heard that sort of speaking before, it was characteristic of someone being controlled by the Imperius Curse. And of someone who was resisting its hold, their fighting causing little flaws in its control.

She turned and started back down the road; Break only caught this because he was peering around the corner into the street. Nightray watched her go, his hand lowering to touch the scissor kept at his side, rather like he was thinking about using them sometime soon.

Quickly Break pulled himself back into the alley, hiding the shadows again as Nightray passed by. Had this Echo joined Nightray on his visit to his brother? Or had she joined Nightray later to pass on some message?

And, who, exactly, was she?

This was certainly another puzzle to consider.

He needed to do some more snooping.

* * *

Alone in the flat Liam dried the last dish, setting it back on the self, erasing the last trace of Xerxes Break's presence. The mirror had been replaced in the bathroom, the clipped hair thrown away, the crumbs wiped up. There would be nothing to give him away.

He had this under control. He could do this.

But the flat was very quiet, very large and very empty with a certain vibrant Auror gone. Liam forced his hands to relax and set down the drying cloth. His shoulders straightened and he drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. For two years he'd done this, he could do it a little longer.

Even if the memory of cake and tea and laughter haunted the edges of his mind for the rest of the night as Vincent returned, out of sorts.

* * *

**The need you buried deep**

**The secrets that you keep are ever ready**

**Are you ready?**

**(The Pretender)**

* * *

**TBC**


	9. Chapter 9

**The Pretender**

I'm back! I promise, I didn't abandon this story, some other projects just took priority for while. Let me know what you think, what you suspect, what you like, anything really.

**Chapter 9**

* * *

"A hunt?" Break had perched himself in his now customary place on the edge of Lunettes' desk.

"At least attempt to keep your voice down." Liam's voice sounded too distracted to have any real bite in it as he shuffled his papers and scrolls into various drawers in his desk, sealing each drawer with a tap of his wand. "You know this type of thing is best kept quiet."

"You're telling _me_." Break pointed out. This would normally be the part of the conversation where he would pull out a sweet to munch on and make some teasing remark but the idea of Lunettes going out into the field to hunt down a Death Eater with only Nightray to watch his back had him feeling unusually somber.

"Only because you should know. And you'd raise a fuss if I vanished suddenly." Straightening from placing scrolls in the last drawer Liam glanced at him. "Or, at least, I feel as if you would."

"I would." Break assured him and there was no hint of a tease in his voice. "I would raise the most loud fuss if you disappeared."

The look that flitted briefly across Lunettes face might have been relief, but it was gone too fast for Break to quite catch. Then he spoke as if there had been break, no little crack in… whatever it was he did. "And that's why I'm telling you. Vince and I will be leaving soon."

"Any idea how soon you'll be back?" Break asked, carefully neglecting to add what he was thinking, which was "Any idea if you'll be back?" Liam was an Auror, had been an Auror for ages, surely he could take care of himself.

The other man shrugged. "A week, two weeks, you know how these things work. It's hard to say."

Break took Liam's cloak, it was the heavier one, made for very cold weather, he noted, and offered it to him. "Let me know when you get back?"

"Don't worry," Lunettes said, taking the cloak and seeming to understand what he was really asking, "I'll be alright." He settled the cloak over his shoulders and smiled, perhaps a little sadly. "After all, I have Vincent to look after me."

After Lunettes left, that sewer rat of a partner meeting him at the door and casting a smug look at Break as he walked out with him, Break slid off the desk until he was sitting on the floor. There was little he could do about the fact that Lunettes would go off into the field if he had a lead that put him close to catching a Death Eater. If it was up to Break while he had such an… unsavory partner he would rather Liam stay in the office where it was safer. Well, as long as he stayed away from stairwells, of course.

Still, they had jobs to do, those of them who were not still technically on medical leave and even he had a report he was supposed to be writing. Which he had no intention of working on, even with Liam away hunting.

In fact, he had a very different plan for the time now open to him. One Liam would probably not approve of at all.

* * *

"Student records?" Professor Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, raised silvery brows as he regarded Break, who was sitting in front of his desk. "Why would records of this nature be of interest to an Auror?"

"Simply an ongoing investigation." Break smiled his best 'trust me, I'm ever so harmless' smile. "No matter for you to worry about."

"You do realize that as headmaster it is my duty to protect to privacy of all those young people who pass through these halls."

"I do. However it is information that I need badly." Badly enough not to go trough official channels, which would raise multiple red flags back at the Ministry and take far too long. "Trust me, I mean no harm to any student of yours."

"Even to former student whose history you pry into?" the very piercing look in the old wizard's eyes gave Break the distinct impression he knew exactly what he was up to, which unsettled him to no end.

"Especially not that student." He assured him. "If fact, I mean to save them."

"From who exactly do they need to be saved?"

Break offered his best attempt at a real smile, it felt rusty and unused. "Themselves."

For a long moment Professor Dumbledore seemed to consider his words, then he nodded and said, "You may have an hour. Copy anything you want to take with you and try not to leave a mess for the elves."

* * *

An hour later found Break sitting at the bar to the Hog's Head, a forgotten Butterbeer at his elbow, leafing through the stack of papers he magiced copies of when his time ran too short. The bartender was eyeing him with no little curiosity but hadn't asked and, given his taciturn nature, was unlikely to.

It had taken some creative math on Break's part to estimate the year Lunettes had left Hogwarts and in the end he'd had to subtract a year from what he'd originally calculated to find the right name on the index. By then he was covered in dust, extremely annoyed and his hour was almost up. He ended up just magically copying all the files of boys graduating that year, simply because it was faster than wading through the drawer to find the exact file.

However that left him with the stack at his elbow, which he was already sorting through to find the right name. This was made somewhat difficult by the limited amount of space at the bar, but the tables were all occupied and he was willing to work with what he could get. Finally he produced the right paper and, drawing out his wand, he drew a circle on the paper. Immediately it became a scroll which he eagerly unrolled to read.

Within moments he was frowning, within minutes that frown had failed to dissipate, getting deeper. Once more Lunettes' name was spelled wrong on the top of the scroll it had one 't' but later on it had two and even farther down it had one once more. Now Break had by this time seen the man sign things before, he knew there were two 't's in it.

Once could have been a mistake, but several times… several times suggested something else was going on.

And even curiouser were the records of Liam Lunettes themselves. They showed a fairly average student, with good marks, who didn't get into all that much trouble, and had gone into the Ministry in Ireland on leaving school. Normally Break wouldn't be surprised to find Lunettes with such a school records, but three things puzzled him. Firstly Liam was quite clever, if he'd learned nothing else about him Break had learned that his easily flustered nature belied a extremely sharp mind. He was a little surprised someone of such intelligence and dedication to their work had done such an average job in their schooling.

Secondly was the clean record of behavior, Lunettes himself had told him a story, tired and trying to hid the wound on the back of his hand from Break's eye, about the fight he'd gotten into his fourth year at school. Teachers had had to break it up when it escalated to spells and he'd accidentally turned two of them into pigeons. Something like that would have made it into the records and yet there was no mention of it here.

And thirdly was something he had been told by Sharon, about how Liam had tutored her while they were in school together. There was absolutely no record of Liam Lunettes being a tutor.

From previous (more legitimate) forays into Hogwarts records Break knew that anyone who tutored had an indication of this on their records and the lack of this on Liam's was suspicious.

He read over the paper again, tapping his fingers impatiently on the bartop as he considered the problem. Why were there so inconsistencies here? Had Liam been lying? It seemed unlikely, not with the way he was so closed-mouthed about his past. And the information about the tutoring had come from Sharon, not Lunettes, which made it even more likely to be true.

Finally he traced the circle on another student's paper, glancing at the scroll this produced and discarding it when it didn't have what he want on it. He made another scroll appear, checked it and found the mention of tutoring on it. Checking farther down he saw the record of a fight… in the fourth year. And this student's marks were high, nigh on exceptional.

But his name was written as 'William Callaghan'.

Break frowned and flicked his wand, making all the records but the two he held disappear in purple flames. He held the records, 'Liam Lunettes' and 'William Callaghan' next to each other, glancing back and forth between then, noting the differences. How interesting. How _very_ interesting.

When he went to check Lunettes' background this wasn't what he had expected.

Riddles within riddles. A puzzle inside another puzzle. Just as Break thought he knew the mysteries Liam presented he uncovered another. And this one… he looked down at the records.

It was looking more and more likely that the person he had come to know as Liam Lunettes might not be who, or what, he seemed to be.

* * *

**So who are you?**

**Yeah, who are you?**

**(The Pretender)**

* * *

**TBC**


	10. Chapter 10

**The Pretender**

I'm back! This chapter was a tough one, the talk that's here is one I've been building up to for a long time so I was very worried about getting it right. Also, canon states that Liam pretty much never gets drunk but I've taken a small deviation from that because… well, magic whiskey. That probably would get anyone drunk.

**Chapter 10**

* * *

It was less than a week before Liam was back at his desk and he appeared, much to Break's surprise, completely unharmed by the hunt he'd been on. If Break was honest with himself he'd expected to find Lunettes in the infirmary instead of at his desk and though he was glad Liam was alright it was somewhat startling to see him sitting there as if nothing had happened. With that much time alone with Nightray Break had feared the worst.

"Are you going to keep staring or are you going to finally ask me how my hunt went?" Lunettes had apparently mastered the art of appearing absorbed in the scroll he was writing while being anything but. He glanced up at him now, pushing his glasses further up his nose. The smile on his lips was tired, but that was to be expected when one had just returned from hunting down a Death Eater.

Break came to sit on the edge of Lunettes' desk as he often did, his own best approximation of a smile fully in place. "I thought I'd let you offer before I asked. From the look of you you didn't find too much trouble."

"We didn't find anything." Liam said quietly. "The trail had gone completely cold."

He shook his head. "Disappointing. By the way, where's that partner of yours? I would think he'd be here to scowl away his failure."

"He took the evening shift." Lunettes shrugged. "There were things he wanted to do before returning for work."

"Looking for leads?"

"No," then he seemed to hesitate, "Well, maybe, I honestly don't know what he gets up to sometimes." The sour twist to his mouth was perhaps a little too sour even for a neglected lover.

Break took handful of candies and offered several to Liam as there wasn't much about that matter that he could say out loud without annoying the other man. At this point, annoying him was no fun, although flustering Lunettes had yet to loose it's charm.

But clearly today all Liam was interested in was catching up on the paperwork that had piled up in his absence so Break made himself scarce, spending the rest of the shift idly flicking hard candy over the dividing wall between his and Vessalius' desks. The other man clearly wasn't there that day or he would have heard some amount of protest but Break was looking forward to hearing the reaction he would have when he found his desk littered with candy.

At least he had managed to avoid doing anything resembling work.

* * *

No one could have been more surprised than him when there was a knock on the door of his apartment that night. He didn't exactly have a lot of visitors -he usually didn't have any- especially not at three in the morning.

It wasn't as if he'd been asleep, this had been another night where he'd been unable to ignore the ache in his eye socket, but he came to the door with wand in hand all the same. Caution was a good plan when one was a Auror.

But a look through the peephole showed someone he hadn't expected at his door.

Disabling the locks and wards he opened the door, leaning nonchalantly on the doorjamb. "I wasn't aware you knew where I lived."

Lunettes, who spored a nasty black eye and a cut that looked worryingly clean on his cheekbone, gave him a tired smile. "I looked up a while back. Look, I'm sorry to show up out of the blue." He nodded to the two bottles he was holding in the crook of an arm, "I brought a peace offering. It's Fire Whisky."

"Oh, well, in that case," Break stood back to let him in. He used the opportunity to run his eyes over the other man as he passed, checking for less obvious injuries. Apart from the facial wounds he seemed to have something wrong with his left shoulder, if the way he deliberately kept it on the opposite side from him and lowered it a little was any indication. So Break made a mental note to get a look at that shoulder at the first chance he had and closed the door. It took a few minutes for him to throw all the locks, physical and magical, and by the time he had turned back to the room that served him as front hall and living room in one Liam had already cleared the table.

"Sit down." Break told him. "I'm pretty sure guests aren't supposed to help."

Lunettes snorted. "As if you cared how things are usually done. Where do you keep your glasses?"

"Kitchen, upper cabinet to the left," he said and watched out of the corner of his eye as Lunettes disappeared into the kitchen. His hand dipped under the table and touched one of the bottles that had been secured there. Any Auror worth his salt kept potions on hand, most importantly a strong truth potion. And it was just his luck that combined with alcohol this particular potion would make the drinker very unsure of what exactly they'd said under the influence of it. He had been loth to use this option before but Lunettes was obviously in something much deeper than he'd previously thought and Break couldn't help him until he knew what exactly that was.

And if this was the only way he could get that information… well, it was fortunate he had these few moments along with the bottles, wasn't it?

Break quickly opened one and slipped the potion from it's slot under the table. It was the work of a moment to pour it into one of the bottles and stow the empty vial back out of sight. Only moments later Liam reentered, carrying glasses and raised an eyebrow at Break. "No wonder you never cook. It's a disaster in there."

"I eat out. Or order in." Break took one chair and nodded at Lunettes to take the other, which he did. "Cooking isn't something I ever got the hang of."

"Are you the type to burn water?" Liam's hand went right for the whiskey and he poured himself a generous amount before pouring Break substantially less.

"Yes, yes I am." Break picked up his glass and eyed the liquid within. "Well, I think someone's night was worse than mine. Lovely shiner you have." He set his glass back down.

Immediately Lunettes' face went careful and unreadable,"I don't want to talk about it. Besides, you're on medical leave, I shouldn't be giving you alcohol in the first place." He lifted his glasses and gulped down what had to be a painful amount of Fire Whiskey with only the barest of winces. Immediately he took the bottle and refilled.

As Break had suspected because he'd been the one to pour it Lunettes hadn't checked his glass for tampering. Was that a sign of carelessness or a gesture of trust that Break didn't deserve in the slightest because he was currently drugging him? His guilt made him inclined to think it was the latter.

In any case there really was something wrong here because Break hadn't touched his glass_ at all_ and Liam didn't even appear to have noticed. Even a normal person, never mind a highly trained Auror, would wonder why the person who had been gifted the alcohol had yet to even sip it as he watched the one who had brought it consume it at an alarming rate.

He was mildly impressed that Lunettes could even drink that much alcohol without vomiting but he'd made his way halfway through the bottle already, that meant the potion definitely in his system.

"I won't be on medical leave much longer." Break said, as if the long silence between them hadn't occurred. "It's not as if they can claim that once it's healed the lack of an eye keeps me from doing my duty. All I have to worry about is depth perception and I'm already leaning to correct for that."

"Healed? But if it's gone… what's to heal?" Lunettes was looking at him curiously and definitely a little blearily. Would he have asked that without the potion in his blood? It was a little blunter than he usually was.

Break's hand went up to cover his eye, palm resting protectively over the empty cavity. "It was ripped out." Lunettes frowned but Break was relieved to see no pity in his eyes. "We got caught in a bad place and the Death Eater we were hunting trapped us. Tamara took a hex that laid her out and the witch and I fought-" He had to stop, he always has to stop at this point. It's where the report leaves off too.

The silence comes back, waiting, Liam's eyes on him making it heavy.

"I would understand if you didn't want to finish that story." Lunettes said finally. "I have a few stories that I can only tell up to a point."

"Do they all involve Vincent Nightray?" Break tried to keep the bitterness from his voice but suspects that it didn't work. At least Lunettes is probably too drunk to notice. In fact, he seems to be giving the question some thought -the potion's work, no doubt.

"A lot of them." He admits and his eyes hold shadows as he looks down at his glass. "Not all. I've been in… some bad places. Made some calls that keep me awake at nights. Held secrets that… are weighing on me to keep."

There had been nothing in Lunettes' records to indicate that he'd gotten himself into trouble in Ireland and no note that he had a partner before Nightray. Break added another detail to his growing theory as he tried his luck again.

"What if you don't have to keep those secrets by yourself?" Break asked tentatively.

Liam chuckled and his voice had picked a suggestion of the Irish accent he only shown the once. "I think ye need to look up the definition of _secret_."

"They wouldn't be half as heavy." He pointed out, the soul of reasonableness. "I mean, really, what would you have do if someone knew them?" Because Sharon had hinted, but Break rather wanted to know.

"I…" Lunettes trailed off and looked down again, rolling his glass between his hands, rather dexterously for a man half into a bottle of whiskey though from the way he watches his hands do it it took some amount of concentration. When he went on he spoke in such a slow, thoughtful way the Break had no doubt the potion has more than a little hand in bringing the words out. "If someone found out… I would hav' ta go away. Far away. I'd probably be given another post… after all this work, after all I've given up… it would be a slap inna face."

"What did you give up?" Break asked, almost breathless with anticipation.

That made Lunettes look up and his eyes were glazed, half lidded and not just from the alcohol. "… I gave up my family." It was a whisper.

"You told me they died." He was very careful to keep his tone even, wanting nothing to jolt Liam back to reality.

"No." He looked confused, lost even. "No, that was me. I died. They told me family I didn' make it through the trainin' alive. Accident. Happens sometimes."

Break felt the breath freeze in his lungs. For a moment he couldn't seem to convince them to move at all. Liam's family had been told- they thought that- but of corse, what easier way to turn William Callaghan into Liam Lunettes than to kill William in some way that would explain an unrecoverable body?

This was big, so big he couldn't have even imagined.

Maybe he really was getting into something too deep for him. The kind of people with the resources to do something like that… those were some very power people.

Before he could speak he had to take a breath, in and out, freeing his lungs and trying to steady himself. He had to careful now, a misstep could ruin everything if Liam realized that he had said too much. "You shouldn't have to live like this. You should be able to tell your family alive, you should be allowed to get away from someone who hurts you, I don't know why this is going on but it isn't right."

Lunettes narrowed his eyes at him and Break mentally winced, "Stop trying to save me!" He staggered to his feet, seeming to forget the glass he'd been holding and letting to fall to the floor where it spilled whisky onto the hardwood. His eyes were still half lidded, glazed with the potion's influence and maybe as well as from drinking so much so quickly. He leveled a finger at him that wavered back and forth unsteadily. "Ye don't know what ye're doin' and it's puttin' it all at risk! I've been workin' too long for ye to make a mess of this now on account of not knowin' enough te keep out!"

Reaching out Break steadied his hand with both of his own. "Do you need saving, William? Are you really alright?"

There was something raw and broken on Lunettes' face for a moment, like Break had reached in and put a hand to a bleeding wound. "I-I don't… I donna know anymor-" and he collapsed forward so suddenly that Break had to jump up to catch him.

Carefully he eased the man back into his chair, settling his lolling head on the headrest with some amount of care. It didn't much surprise Break that he'd passed out, he was more surprised that vomiting hadn't happened first. He certainly couldn't have drunk that much alcohol straight in so little time and he had a very good tolerance.

That had been more enlightening than Break had dared hope it would be.

For the time being he ignored the whiskey spilled across the floor and summoned the first aid kit to him. It was the work of a moment the spread a cream on that black eye that would take away most of the bruising by morning, Lunettes could thank him for the avoided awkward questions later. The cut would heal better with balm on it, though it would still be visible for at least another day.

Completely unrepentant at the invasion of privacy he unbuttoned Lunettes' shirt to get a look at that shoulder he'd been favoring. He wasn't much surprised to find that it had a few gauze pads taped to it, though when he pulled them away to look at the wound he found the slice underneath that was as alarmingly straight and clean as the one on his face. They looked ;ike the marks a scissor blade might make in the skin.

Break had to step away for a moment at the thought, his hands were shaking too hard for him to clean the wound properly. The man had done that to his partner, and not just his partner but his lover. What lowlife prayed on those closest to them?

And then there was the even more unsettling thought that Liam's shirt didn't have any blood on it. Considering that they'd probably been fighting before Lunettes walked out Break doubted that he would have had time to change a cut shirt, which implied the cut had taken place while he didn't have a shirt on.

Just when Break thought he could suppress the urge to snap Vincent Nightray's neck he had to go and think of that.

He had to take several deep breaths before his hands were steady enough to clean and dress the slice, even then he had to concentrate hard on the tape to make sure it went on the gauze straight.

That task accomplished Break carries the unconscious Lunettes to his bed, with some amount of effort because Lunettes was heavier than he looked, to tuck him in to sleep off both the alcohol and the potion. If everything went as planned he'd wake with a handover and no memory of what he said the night before. Break settled himself on the couch with the unopened bottle of Fire Whiskey -which he then opened- and mulled over what he'd just learned.

Liam Lunettes was actually William Callaghan and had been born to an Irish family. That family now thought he was dead in a training accident -probably during his Auror training- and he himself had been transfered to this Ministry of Magic. He was definitely here for a reason, Break had trouble believing one bad egg Auror warranted importing a dead man to be his partner.

So there was something about Nightray that was special and not in a good way.

Then there was Sharon, who claimed to have known Lunettes growing up. Unless she was lying that meant she knew he was William as well. Yes, that definitely fit with her warnings earlier.

And whatever Liam was doing, she knew about it as well. Break had to learn it, had to find out what meant so much to Liam that he let himself be the victim of a bully for years just to accomplish it.

But this meant he was going to have to act soon, before everything fell apart and directly onto Liam's head.

* * *

**I'm finished making sense**

**Done pleading ignorance**

**That whole defense**

**(The Pretender)**

* * *

**TBC**


End file.
